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UNIVERSITY  i         LIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


The  National  Social  Science  Series 

Edited  by  Frank  L.  McVey,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 
President  of  the   University  of  Kentucky 

Now  Ready:     Each,  One  Dollar 

AMERICAN  CITY,  THE.  Henry  C.  Wright,  First 
Deputy  Commissioner,  Department  of  Public  Charities, 
New  York  City. 

BANKING,  William  A.  Scott,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy,  The  University  of  Wisconsin. 

COST  OF  LIVING,  THE.  W.  E.  Clark,  Professor  of 
Political  Science,  The  College  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

CAUSE  AND  CURE  OF  CRIME,  THE.  Charles  R. 
Henderson,  late  Professor  of  Sociology,  The  University 
of  Chicago. 

FAMILY  AND  SOCIETY,  THE.  John  M.  Gillette, 
Professor  of  Sociology,  The  University  of  North  Dakota. 

GOVERNMENT  FINANCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
Carl  C.  Plehn,  Professor  of  Finance,  The  University  of 
California. 

HOUSING  AND  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM.  Carol 
Aronovici,  Lecturer  on  Social  Problems,  The  University 
of  Minnesota. 

MONEY.    William  A.  Scott. 

MONROE  DOCTRINE  AND  THE  GREAT  WAR,  THE. 
Arnold  Bennett  Hall,  Associate  Professor  of  Political 
Science,  The  University  of  Wisconsin. 

NATIONAL  EVOLUTION.  George  R.  Davies,  Assistant 
Professor  in  the  Department  of  Economics,  Princeton 
University. 


PROPERTY  AND  SOCIETY.  A.  A.  Bruce,  Associate 
Justice  Supreme  Court,  North  Dakota. 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CITIZENSHIP,  THE.  Arland  D. 
Weeks,  Professor  of  Education,  North  Dakota  Agricul- 
tural College. 

RURAL  PROBLEMS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
James  E.  Boyle,  Extension  Professor  of  Rural  Economy, 
College  of  Agriculture,  Cornell  University. 

SOCIAL  ANTAGONISMS.    Arland  D.  Weeks. 

SOCIAL  ENVIRONMENT.    George  R.  Davies. 

SOCIAL  INSURANCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
Gurdon  Ransom  Miller,  Professor  of  Sociology  and 
Economics,  Colorado  State  Teachers'  College. 

SOCIOLOGY.    John  M.  Gillette. 

STATE  AND  GOVERNMENT,  THE.  J.  S.  Young,  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Science,  The  University  of  Minnesota. 

STATISTICS.  William  B.  Bailey,  Professor  of  Practical 
Philanthropy,  Yale  University,  and  John  Cummings,  Ex- 
pert Special  Agent,  Bureau  of  the  Census. 

SYMPATHY  AND  SYSTEM  IN  GIVING.  Elwood 
Street,  Director  of  Welfare  League,  Louisville,  and  Sec- 
retary, American  Association  for  Community  Organiza- 
tion. 

TAXATION.  C.  B.  Fillebrown,  late  President  Massa- 
chusetts Single  Tax  League. 

TRUSTS  AND  COMPETITION.  John  F.  Crowell,  As- 
sociate Editor  of  the  Wall  Street  Journal. 

WOMEN  WORKERS  AND  SOCIETY.  Annie  M.  Mac- 
Lean,  Assistant  Professor  of  Sociology,  The  University 
of  Chicago. 


Sympathy  and  System 
In  Giving 


BY 


ELWOOD   STREET 

Director,  Welfare  League,  Louisville,  Kentucky, 

and  Secretary,  American  Association 

for  Community  Organization 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 

1921 


r\ 


H 


Copyright 

A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co. 

192 1 


Published  March,  1921 


. 


T     1     w  ^  " 

,     ■ 
■ 
*     * 

i  ,  : '    •  ••      «  -    ,-  .   . 

«  •  «  .....  , 


Dedicated  to 

WHITING  WILLIAMS, 

Formerly  Executive  Secretary, 

Cleveland  Federation  for  Charity  and  Philanthropy 


«0 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

MODERN  charity  has  been  an  enigma  to  many 
people.    Not  only  were  they  confused  regard- 
^  ing  the  choice  of  gifts  but  they  were  opposed  to 
^   philanthropic   enterprises   that   emphasized   service 
r,v    rather  than  giving  in  the  assistance  of  the  unfortu- 
""^  nate.    The  most  successful  charity  organizations,  or 
as  they  are  now  called  "  welfare  associations,"  were 
those    maintaining    staffs    of    well-trained    people. 
After  all,  every  "  charity  "  problem  is  a  problem  of 
•^  adjustment.     And  it  is  this  phase,  that  Mr.  Street 
|*    has  emphasized,  adjustment  under  wise  direction. 
The  growth,  however,  of  the  great  private  philan- 
thropies require  increasing  amounts  of  money  to 
maintain  them.    How  to  give  wisely  and  well  is  not 
an  easy  matter  to  determine.    Every  well-to-do  citi- 
L     zen  is  called  upon  to  do  his  part  in  helping  rejuvenate 
£    the  wreckage  of  society.    This  book  will  be  a  genuine 
<2$    help  to  the  giver  who  wants  wise  direction  in  assist- 
ing him  to  a  conclusion. 

F.  L.  M. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

FOR  the  "  man  on  the  street "  to  whom  much  of 
modern  charity  is  a  mystery,  but  who  neverthe- 
less is  being  asked  to  give  more  and  more  to  that 
charity,  is  this  little  book  written. 

I  have  attempted  to  write  it  in  the  same  manner 
that,  by  personal  conversation,  I  would  try  to  explain 
what  "  all  this  charity  is  about "  to  some  broker  or 
merchant  or  lawyer  friend  of  mine  who  had  been 
buried  in  his  business  or  professional  interests  and 
had  suddenly  come  to  the  realization  that  while  he 
wanted  to  help  others,  he  wanted  to  help  effectively 
and  to  know  why  and  how  he  was  helping. 

My  chief  personal  reaction  after  writing  this  book 
has  been  a  feeling  of  tremendous  humility  at  the 
amount  that  I  have  discovered  I  do  not  know  about 
social  service  ;  and  of  hopelessness  at  ever  being  able 
to  know  thoroughly  a  subject  so  deeply  rooted  in 
human  history  and  so  various  in  its  manifestations  at 
the  present  day. 

If,  for  all  this  book's  imperfections,  it  shall  have 
helped  some  few  people  to  give  more  intelligently 
and  happily,  or  to  lend  their  influence  more  effective- 
ly to  advance  the  cause  of  human  welfare  in  our 
country,  I  shall  feel  that  all  the  effort  will  have  been 
well  repaid. 


Author's  Preface 


I  wish  especially  to  acknowledge  the  valuable  aid 
of  Miss  Mildred  Graham  in  securing  material  for 
this  book ;  of  Miss  Mildred  Anderson  in  painstak- 
ingly and  thoughtfully  revising  the  manuscript;  and 
of  the  editor,  Dr.  Frank  L.  McVey,  for  his  very 
sympathetic  and  helpful  suggestions  for  improve- 
ment. 

Elwood  Street. 


LOUISVILLE,  KENTUCKY, 

December  28,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  Why? i 

II  Whence  ? 21 

III  "  Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend  " 42 

IV  "  Unto  the  Least  of  These  " 57 

V  Health,  Wealth,  and  Happiness.  . .     73 

VI  The  Unclean  Spirit 87 

VII  Beating  the  Devil 98 

VIII  Effective  Gifts m 

IX  The  Widow's  Mite 135 

X  The  Giver  With  the  Gift 143 

XI  Whither  ? 1 54 


SYMPATHY  AND  SYSTEM 
IN  GIVING 


THE  NATIONAL  SOCIAL  SCIENCE  SERIES 


Edited  by  Frank  L.  McVey 


The  purpose  of  this  series  is  to  furnish  for  busy 

men   and    women    a    brief    but    essentially 

sane  and  sound  discussion  of  present-day 

questions.    The    authors    have    been 

chosen  with  care  from  men  who 

are  in  first-hand  contact  zvith 

the    materials,     and    who 

■will      bring      to      the 

reader  the  newest 

phases  of  the 

subject. 


SYMPATHY  AND  SYSTEM  IN  GIVING 

CHAPTER  I 

WHY? 

A  QUARTER  of  a  century  ago,  Abraham  Ep- 
worth  Rounds,  aged  forty-five,  came  sham- 
bling out  of  mountainous  eastern  Tennessee  to  one 
of  our  Kentucky  cities.  He  was  intent  on  making 
a  living  in  easier  fashion  than  scratching  it  from 
the  lean  soil  of  the  mountainside.  Among  his 
immediate  relatives  were  nineteen  people  defective 
from  birth  —  blind,  deaf,  feeble-minded.  Abraham 
Epworth  Rounds  ran  true  to  the  family  form.  His 
sight  was  so  defective  that  he  had  been  given  a  few 
years  of  schooling  at  the  Tennessee  School  for  the 
Blind. 

In  Louisville,  at  first,  he  made  a  precarious  living 
for  himself  and  his  wife  (his  second  spouse)  by 
working  at  odd  jobs,  chiefly  on  the  road,  and  by 
periodical  fits  of  labor  in  the  woody ard  of  the 
Associated  Charities,  in  exchange  for  which  evi- 
dence of  his  good  intent,  the  family  rent  and  grocery 
bills  were  paid.  Before  long,  mutual  fits  of  temper 
provided  the  basis  of  a  divorce  between  himself  and 
his  wife. 

Then  it  was  that  Abraham  Epworth  Rounds  en- 


2  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

tered  public  life.  He  simultaneously  acquired  a  job 
as  "  white  wing  "  in  the  city  street-cleaning  depart- 
ment and  a  third  wife.  This  good  lady,  in  the 
course  of  time,  presented  him  with  triplets,  whom  he 
named  after  the  mayor,  the  chairman  of  the  Board 
of  Works  (under  which  was  the  street-cleaning 
department)  and  the  head  of  the  street-cleaning 
department.  Each  of  the  godfathers  made  an  ap- 
propriate gift  to  his  godchild.  The  story  of  this 
unusual  chain  of  events  naturally  got  into  the  news- 
papers. Thereupon  gifts  were  showered  by  an 
enthusiastic  public  upon  the  triplets  and  their  proud 
mother  and  their  "blind"  (for  publicity  purposes) 
father. 

Abraham  Epworth  Rounds  had  apparently  long 
suspected  that  the  public  owed  him  a  living,  and  this 
experience  confirmed  his  opinion.  He  promptly  took 
his  battered  old  fiddle,  a  folding  chair,  and  a  tin  cup 
and  repaired  to  the  most  conspicuous  corner  in  the 
city.  There,  he  unfolded  his  chair,  sat  himself  down, 
strapped  the  cup  to  his  knee,  assumed  the  full  ap- 
pearance of  blindness,  and  began  playing  hymn 
tunes  on  the  fiddle.  The  results  were  highly  satis- 
factory. The  "  blind  "  fiddler,  with  his  hymn  tunes, 
touched  the  sympathies  and  the  religious  sensibilities 
of  good  folk,  and  he  at  once  began  to  collect,  in  his 
tin  cup,  a  better  living  than  he  ever  had  been  able  to 
make  by  work. 

For  twenty  years  Abraham  Epworth  Rounds  thus 
sat  and  fiddled  and  collected  alms.  In  addition  to 
the  fifteen  to  thirty  dollars  a  week  he  made  from 
begging,  he  and  the  family  received  gifts  from  the 


Why?  3 

three  churches  to  which  the  family  belonged,  and 
from  various  semi-religious  charitable  organizations. 
The  whole  family  was  pauperized.  Abraham  Ep- 
worth  Rounds  refused,  steadily,  the  offers  of  pen- 
sioning made  from  time  to  time  by  the  Associated 
Charities,  because  he  could  make  a  more  ample  liv- 
ing by  begging.  The  triplets  grew  into  shiftless 
young  men.  Two  more  boys  were  born,  both  blind. 
When  they  became  old  enough  to  go  to  a  school  for 
the  blind,  they  proved  to  be  the  hardest  to  handle 
in  the  whole  school  —  because  they  felt  they  were 
specially  privileged. 

Finally,  the  thing  happened  which  should  have 
happened  in  the  beginning.  The  police  were  per- 
suaded to  enforce  the  city  ordinances  and  state  laws 
which  prohibited  begging  and  vagrancy  ;  and  Abra- 
ham Epworth  Rounds,  although  defying  the  police 
orders  longer  than  any  of  the  other  beggars  who  had 
infested  the  streets,  was  finally  forced  to  go  to  the 
Associated  Charities  for  direction  and  help.  He 
was  the  last  of  the  beggars. 

Then  was  done  a  very  simple  thing,  a  thing  which 
might  have  been  done  at  any  time  in  the  previous 
twenty  years  except  for  thoughtless  and  haphazard 
almsgiving.  The  Associated  Charities  got  Abraham 
Epworth  Rounds  a  job  working  in  a  broom  shop  for 
the  blind;  and  persuaded  one  of  the  triplets,  still 
living  with  his  parents,  to  go  to  work.  The  family 
promptly  became  self-supporting ;  and,  thanks  to  the 
guidance  of  the  Associated  Charities  worker,  has 
since  needed  practically  no  material  aid. 

Every  city  in  the  country  has  its  duplicates,  in 


4  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

more  or  less  recognizable  form,  of  Abraham  Ep- 
worth  Rounds ;  and  the  problem  he  exemplifies  is  a 
problem  which  faces  most  American  citizens  at  the 
present  time.  How  may  one  give  so  as  to  render 
constructive  service  to  his  fellow-citizens  in  need? 
Old  as  civilization  itself,  the  spirit  of  giving,  or 
charity,  is  one  of  the  most  potent  forces  of  the 
modern  world  in  serving  those  in  distress,  in  ex- 
pressing the  higher  emotions  of  our  citizenship  and 
in  molding  social  life.  By  "  charity,"  in  these 
modern  days,  we  mean  not  merely  the  giving  by 
benevolent  individuals  of  alms  or  "  material  relief  ' 
to  those  unfortunate  people  who  are  hungry,  or  cold, 
or  without  clothing  or  shelter,  but  we  include  in  the 
term  the  whole  field  of  human  service  or  "  social 
service,"  as  financed  by  the  voluntary  gifts  of  gen- 
erous people  and  made  effective  through  competent 
organization. 

The  Reasons  for  Giving 

Giving  expresses  the  fundamental  instinct  of  sym- 
pathy. This  relationship  expands  from  the  care  of 
the  savage  for  his  aged  parents  and  his  infant  chil- 
dren through  various  stages  of  regard  for  those  less 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  to  the  broad  humani- 
tarianism  of  the  present-day  philanthropist  who 
recognizes  a  responsible  kinship  for  suffering  human 
beings  in  such  distant  parts  of  the  world  as  Armenia 
and  Syria.  The  idea  of  brotherly  love  is  inherent  in 
all  religions ;  the  one  point  on  which  all  faiths  can 
agree  is  on  the  practice  of  charity ;  and  many  people 
who  have  little  or  no  theology  at  all  hold  that  human 


Why?  5 

service  to  them  sums  up  all  religion.  The  very  name 
"  charity "  is  derived  from  the  Latin  caritas  or 
"  love  ;"  "  philanthropy  "  comes  from  the  Greek  and 
means  literally  "  love  of  man  ;"  while  "  benevolence  " 
in  its  Latin  original  means  "  well-wishing."  Giving 
thus  is  seen  to  be  the  expression  of  strong  human 
emotions;  and  to  have  the  added  virtue  of  putting 
one  "  in  tune  with  the  infinite." 

Why  People  Give 

The  fundamental  nature  of  giving  in  its  relation 
to  the  life  of  the  giver  is  well  indicated  by  the  replies 
to  a  questionnaire  recently  sent  to  givers  of  the  Wel- 
fare League  of  Louisville.  They  were  asked  to 
indicate  what  seemed  to  them  the  relative  importance 
of  the  following  possible  causes  of  giving :  pity  for 
those  in  distress ;  sympathy  for  their  fellow-men  in 
need;  humanity;  religious  obligations;  justice  to 
those  who  have  not  had  a  fair  chance ;  duty  to  their 
fellow-citizens  in  need;  making  Louisville  a  better 
place  for  themselves  and  those  they  held  dear. 

Pity  was  indicated  as  the  strongest  motive  for 
giving,  with  490  votes ;  sympathy,  next  in  impor- 
tance, with  348 ;  humanity,  which  is  related  to  sym- 
pathy, third,  with  419;  religious  obligation,  344; 
justice,  305 ;  duty,  314 ;  and  safety,  which  is  a  selfish 
motive,  as  contrasted  with  the  others  (which  may  be 
considered  altruistic),  217. 

Interesting  side  lights  on  human  nature  are  cast 
by  some  of  the  other  reasons  which  were  assigned 
by  soul-searching  givers  as  reasons  for  their  charity. 
"  To  make  the  giver  a  better  man."    "  The  duty  or 


6  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

obligation  one  owes  to  his  Lord  and  Creator  and  to 
his  fellow-man."  "  Because  '  my  position  demands 
it '  or  because  '  the  other  fellow  did  '."  "  Those  able 
and  strong  should  help  and  assist  the  weak."  "  We 
feel  that  it  is  our  duty  to  assist  those  in  distress  and 
that  the  distribution  is  much  better  taken  care  of 
than  it  would  be  through  our  own  private  efforts  at 
investigating  the  different  cases."  "Aiding  people 
to  help  themselves."  "  Moral  obligation."  "  The 
happiness  it  brings  to  the  giver."  "  Care  of  today's 
children  who  will  be  tomorrow's  men  and  women. 
Their  Christian  upbringing  will  forestall  Bolshe- 
vistic tendencies  in  the  future."  "  Unfortunates 
must  be  taken  care  of,  whether  deserving  or  not." 
"  Our  greatest  blessing  is  our  ability  to  serve  and  use 
God's  gifts  to  us  in  helping  God's  children."  "A 
great  many,  like  myself,  have  no  children."  "  For 
the  common  good."  "  To  make  the  world  a  better 
place  to  live,  both  for  them  and  ourselves."  "  Grati- 
tude for  blessings  and  ability  to  give."  "  The  Golden 
Rule."  "Because  I  owe  it  to  myself  to  see  that 
everyone  is  happy  near  me."  These  were  more  or 
less  isolated  statements,  for  most  of  those  who  an- 
swered the  questionnaire  confined  themselves  to 
numbering  their  choices  among  the  reasons  originally 
listed.  Still,  the  general  tone  of  these  added  reasons 
is  significant.  There  seems  no  reason  to  think  that 
the  relative  importance  of  these  various  motives  of 
giving  would  not  hold  good  for  the  country  at  large, 
for  the  questionnaires  were  filled  in  by  people  of 
every  social  group  or  class,  every  religious  faith  or 
no  faith,  and  both  white  and  colored  people,  in  Louis- 


Why?  7 

ville.    Human  nature,  as  expressed  in  giving,  surely 
is  about  the  same  everywhere. 

Giving  More  General  Now  Than  Ever 

The   force  of  these  reasons   for  the  practice  of 
charity  seems  to  be  growing  stronger  and  stronger, 
so  that  nowadays  almost  everyone  gives  to  some 
charitable  cause  or  other.    Our  philanthropists  range 
from  the  world-weary  multi-millionaire  who  estab- 
lishes a  foundation  with  a  staff  of  experts  to  carry 
out  specific  benevolent  purposes,  to  the  little  boy  in 
Sunday  school  who  gives  a  shiny  penny,  which  he 
has  carried  from  home  tightly  clutched  in  a  sweaty 
little  fist,  to  buy  milk  for  sick  babies.     Organized 
giving  increased   greatly    during  the   World   War, 
with  the  "drives"  for  the  Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.,  the  Salvation  Army,  and  the  other  war  agencies. 
These  appeals  were  given  unparalleled  force  by  pa- 
triotism and  by  a  selective  military  service  which 
called  men  from  almost  every  household  to  the  dan- 
gers of  war.    Generous  givers  were  secured  by  the 
tens  of  thousands  where  the  old  peace-time  charities 
had  their  thousands.    During  the  war,  also,  men  and 
women  who  never  before  had  rendered  any  personal 
service  for  unselfish  causes  gave  unstintedly  of  their 
time  and  energy  in  Red  Cross  workrooms,  in  helping 
to  entertain  soldiers,  in  campaigns  for  war  funds  and 
for  the  sale  of  Liberty  bonds  and  war  savings  stamps 
and  in  service  as  Four-Minute  Men,  speaking  under 
the  direction  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Informa- 
tion.   People  discovered  not  only  that  they  had  time 
for  such  unpaid  service,  but  that  they  enjoyed  it, 


8  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

as  well.  The  habit  of  giving  time  and  service,  thus 
acquired  during  the  war,  is  not  easily  lost ;  and  many 
persons  either  have  bestowed  generous  gifts  of  their 
time  and  money  upon  peace-time  philanthropies  or 
are  looking  for  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  It  may 
truly  be  said  of  giving  that  "  Everybody's  doing  it ;" 
and,  quite  as  truly,  that  almost  everybody's  doing  it 
because  he  likes  it.  The  joy  of  giving  is  being  shared 
now  by  more  givers  than  ever  before  in  our  coun- 
try's history. 

Modem  Munificence 

The  same  causes  which  have  brought  about  a 
multiplication  of  the  number  of  givers  have  tre- 
mendously increased  the  amount  of  money  given. 
A  recent  writer  has  said, 

Up  to  the  time  we  entered  the  war  the  largest  national 
project  for  raising  money  had  been  a  pension  fund  for 
clergymen,  with  $4,000,000  as  its  objective.  Nearly  five 
years  was  spent  in  planning  and  preparation  for  this 
drive,  and  a  year  allowed  for  putting  it  through.  Skep- 
tics declared  the  scheme  preposterous.  Prophets  pre- 
dicted that  it  would  fail.  Nobody  really  knew  whether 
it  would  be  successful  or  not  When  contributions 
exceeded  the  huge  amount  sought,  everybody  was  aston- 
ished. 

Since  then,  however,  money-raising  drives  for  millions 
have  multiplied,  until  every  city,  town,  and  even  country 
crossroads  has  had  its  campaigns  for  war  funds,  chari- 
ties, churches,  educational  institutions,  relief  work, 
social  projects,  and  other  causes.  The  billion-dollar 
steel  trust  was  a  world  marvel  of  high  finance  twenty 
years  ago.     But  the  drive  is  highest  finance. 


Why?  9 

It  is  estimated  that  the  aggregate  amount  of  money 
raised  for  innumerable  causes  the  past  year  would  com- 
fortably float  the  steel  corporation  of  1900,  for  it  ex- 
ceeds $1,000,000,000,  as  nearly  as  figures  can  be  secured, 
and  maybe  runs  to  $1,500,000,000. 

Some  months  ago  a  New  York  investigator  prepared 
an  inquiry  blank  and  began  mailing  it  to  the  promoters 
of  every  money-raising  drive  he  could  get  wind  of. 
He  exhibited  a  pile  of  blanks  that  had  been  filled  out 
and  returned  to  him.  There  were  several  hundred  of 
them. 

The  first  blank  on  top  of  the  pile  carried  the  name  of 
a  church  organization  that  would  not  be  at  all  familiar 
to  the  general  public.  This  organization  was  raising 
funds  locally,  in  a  group  of  middle  western  states. 
The  question  "What  amount  of  money  is  asked  for?" 
was  answered  succinctly  in  figures:  $75,000,000.  Just 
like  that! 

Other  institutions  asked  for  sums  from  $100,000  up 
to  tens  of  millions.  The  millions  predominated.  Every 
fourth  or  fifth  report  modestly  descended  into  frac- 
tions—  halves  of  millions  and  quarters  of  millions,  but 
rarely  tenths.  Anything  under  $100,000  was  excep- 
tional, the  trifling  needs  of  some  local  institution  —  but 
trifling  only  by  contrast.1 

Myriads  Served  by  Modem  Charity 

While  the  number  of  givers  and  the  amount  given 
have  thus  increased  of  late  years,  the  number  of 
those  benefiting  by  their  gifts  has  also  increased. 
This  increase  in  the  number  of  beneficiaries  of 
modern  charity  is  not  because  of  any  increase  in 

1  James  H.  Collins,  "The  Drive  Industry,"  Saturday 
Evening  Post,  August  14,  1920,  p.  5- 


io  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

the  amount  of  poverty  (although  the  high  cost  of 
commodities  since  the  war  has  doubtless  thrust  many 
families  below  the  poverty  line)  or  because  of  any 
reckless  spending  of  the  increased  funds  which  have 
been  made  available  ;  but  because  the  expanding  idea 
of  charity  or  social  service  has  extended  this  service 
to  multitudes  who  were  not  reached  by  ancient 
charity. 

Charity  no  longer  contents  itself  with  mere  alms- 
giving, with  caring  only  for  those  who  are  sick  or 
in  distress.  Charity  is  extending  itself  to  the  field 
of  prevention.  It  promotes  good  health  throughout 
a  community,  so  that  fewer  people  in  any  social 
class  may  suffer  the  financial  losses  entailed  by  sick- 
ness and  death.  It  provides  wholesome  recreation 
for  whole  neighborhoods,  so  that  none  may  become 
the  victims  of  vice  or  the  devotees  of  crime.  It  is 
concerned  in  seeing  that  all  children  get  adequate 
training  for  effective,  self-supporting  adult  life,  so 
that  none  shall  become  poverty-stricken  through  lack 
of  opportunity.  It  renders  advisory  service  to  fami- 
lies and  individuals  at  the  very  beginning  of  troubles 
which  might  lead  to  acute  distress  and  poverty  and 
thus,  while  increasing  the  number  of  people  served, 
reduces  the  number  of  people  who  must  otherwise 
be  given  that  mere  "  material  relief  "  in  the  shape  of 
food,  fuel,  clothing,  or  shelter  which  is  the  evidence 
of  the  failure  of  society  adequately  to  safeguard  its 
members. 

Charity  today  serves  constructively  an  increasing 
number  of  people,  rendering  often  to  whole  com- 
munities a  kind  of  wholesome  aid  which  was  never 


Why?  1 1 

thought  of  in  ancient  days  when  the  whole  of  char- 
ity was  thought  to  be  summed  up  in  giving  to  the 
man  or  woman  in  obvious  distress. 

Social  Service  a  Groiving  Profession 

While  givers,  gifts,  and  clients  mount  in  total,  the 
number  of  people  engaged  in  full-time,  paid  social 
service  has  also  greatly  increased. 

One  of  the  valuable  results  of  the  World  War, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  peace-time  charities, 
was  that  it  taught  to  untold  thousands  of  people,  who 
previously  had  sneered  at  "  the  red  tape  of  charity  " 
and  at  "  social  theorists  "  the  value  of  the  methods 
which  had  been  developed  by  these  hitherto  unre- 
garded charities.  The  American  Red  Cross  in  its 
Home  Service  Section  took  over  bodily  the  princi- 
ples of  "  case  work  "  or  individual  treatment,  backed 
up  by  adequate  records  and  trained  workers,  which 
had  been  developed  by  the  Associated  Charities  and 
charity  organization  societies,  and  applied  them  in 
the  care  of  soldiers'  dependents ;  and  took  over,  as 
well,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  trained  workers 
from  these  older  societies.  The  War  Camp  Com- 
munity Service  in  the  same  way  adopted  the  workers 
and  methods  of  the  community-recreation  movement 
for  providing  adequate  recreation  for  soldiers  and 
sailors  in  war-camp  cities ;  while  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
the  Knights  of  Columbus,  and  the  Jewish  Welfare 
Board  did  the  same  for  their  activities  within  camps. 
The  ranks  of  the  public-health  nurses  were  depleted 
for  army  service ;  and  the  principles  of  sanitation 
and  of  venereal-disease  prevention  through  elimina- 


12  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 


tion  of  red-light  districts  and  suppression  of  prostitu- 
tion, which  were  developed  before  the  war  by  social 
agencies,  were  applied  with  startling  effectiveness 
by  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service  and  the 
Inter-Departmental  Social  Hygiene  Bureau  in  train- 
ing-camp areas.  The  recognition  of  social-service 
methods  and  of  the  importance  of  workers  profes- 
sionally trained  for  such  service  was  forced  home  on 
the  popular  mind  so  effectively  that  since  the  war 
it  has  been  impossible  to  meet  the  demand  of  com- 
munities all  over  the  country  for  the  expansion  of 
existing  agencies  to  serve  more  adequately  local 
needs  or  for  the  creation  of  organizations  not  before 
existing  but  now  recognized  as  desirable. 

Charity,  or  social  service,  long  recognized  by  its 
own  workers  as  a  profession  with  standards  of  prac- 
tice as  clear-cut  as  those  of  the  ministry,  law,  or 
medicine,  now  has  come  to  be  seen  as  such  by  the 
community  at  large.  Social  service  now  looms  as 
one  of  the  leading  professions  of  the  future. 

More  Social  Feeling  Now  Than  Ever 

This  increase  in  the  magnitude  of  charity  has  been 
matched  by  an  increase  in  the  importance  of  humani- 
tarian considerations  in  the  minds  of  great  numbers 
of  people. 

Religion  —  Catholic,  Protestant,  and  Jewish  —  has 
been  imbued  with  a  new  social  spirit.  The  National 
Catholic  Welfare  Council  has  issued  a  remarkable 
pronunciamento  on  Social  Reconstruction,  putting 
the  whole  weight  of  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy 
in  America  behind  the  betterment  of  the  conditions 


Why?  13 

of  life  and  labor  for  all  the  people.  The  Federal 
Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  made  up 
of  over  thirty  Protestant  denominations,  has  taken 
a  somewhat  similar  stand.  The  Central  Conference 
of  American  Rabbis  has  reaffirmed  in  modern  terms 
the  age-old  social  spirit  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets. 
The  late  lamented  Inter-Church  World  Movement 
emphasized  the  principle  of  Christian  stewardship, 
or  the  responsibility  of  the  owners  of  wealth  to  use 
it  for  human  service. 

Nor  is  this  growing  feeling  of  the  responsibility 
of  the  individual  to  render  human  service  restricted 
to  religious  authority  only.  The  call  to  service  is 
becoming  part  of  the  social  code  of  America.  A 
great  editor,  retiring  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  so 
that  he  may  have  leisure  to  do  as  he  pleases,  includes 
in  his  plans  for  his  leisure  the  rendition  of  service 
and  says,  "  The  making  of  money,  the  accumulation 
of  material  power,  is  not  all  there  is  to  living.  Life 
is  something  more  than  these  two  things,  and  the 
man  who  misses  this  truth  misses  the  greatest  joy 
and  satisfaction  that  can  come  into  his  life  —  that  is, 
from  service  to  others." * 

Employers  of  labor,  too,  are  being  touched  by 
this  humanitarian  spirit,  and  are  devising  all  sorts 
of  welfare  schemes,  shop  committees  and  other  plans 
for  bettering  their  relations  with  their  employees  and 
for  broadening  the  lives  of  all  who  are  dependent 
on  the  industry  for  support. 

This  strengthening  of  the  feeling  of  responsibility 

1  Edward  Bok,  "Just  Because  I  Want  to  Play,"  Atlantic 
Monthly,  September,  1920,  p.  370. 


14  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

for  others  cannot  fail  to  strengthen  the  appeal  that 
modern  charity  makes  to  the  thoughtful  and  con- 
scientious citizen. 

Firmly  entrenched  as  charity  or  social  service  thus 
is  in  the  feelings,  the  reason  and  the  activities  of 
untold  numbers  of  people  who  serve  and  are  served, 
it  also  is  of  great  importance  to  the  community  as  a 
whole,  as  distinguished  "from  its  appeal  to  individ- 
uals who  make  up  that  community.  Modern  charity 
is  proving  a  potent  factor  in  improving  social  life. 

Charity  a  Preventative  of  Distress 

As  was  suggested  in  the  preceding  discussion  of 
the  great  increase  in  the  number  of  people  served  by 
modern  social  agencies,  charity  no  longer  contents 
itself  with  mere  relief  of  distress  and  alleviation  of 
suffering.  Nowadays,  charity  strives  to  prevent  the 
linked  social  ills  of  poverty,  disease,  ignorance,  vice, 
and  crime,  through  making  a  scientific  attempt  to 
prevent  the  reproduction  of  the  feeble-minded  and 
epileptic,  to  improve  the  environment  of  those  who 
otherwise  would  be  overwhelmed  by  evil  and  un- 
wholesome surroundings,  and  to  provide  training 
for  those  who  otherwise  would  not  know  how  suc- 
cessfully to  fight  the  battle  of  life. 

Piracy  and  Charity 

The  pirates  of  Algiers  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  captured  English  ships,  ravaged 
English  coasts,  and  took  into  captivity  men  wnom 
they  " '  put  to  daily  extream  and  difficult  labour,  but 
a  poor  supply  of  bread  and  water  for  their  food, 


Why?  15 

stripped  of  their  cloaths  and  covering,  and  their 
lodging  on  the  cold  stones  and  bricks '  where  they 
were  chained,  bastinadoed,  and  subjected  to  other 
outrages." l  To  ransom  these  miserable  captives 
kindly  English  souls  of  that  time  made  contributions 
and  bequests,  which,  unfortunately,  often  served  in 
large  part  merely  to  raise  the  current  price  of  re- 
demption in  Algiers. 

Pirates  have  been  exterminated  in  these  modern 
times,  and  men  now  sail  the  seven  seas  in  safety 
from  molestation  ;  but  in  our  own  country  thousands 
—  yes  hundreds  of  thousands  —  of  people,  men, 
women,  and  children,  are  subject  to  a  captivity 
hardly  less  pitiful  and  barbarous,  the  captivity 
imposed  by  those  ferocious  brigands  of  society ; 
poverty,  misery,  ignorance,  sickness,  and  vice.  And 
just  as  our  forefathers  of  three  and  four  centuries 
ago  did  relatively  little  good  by  attempting  to  ran- 
som the  captives  in  Algiers,  so,  also,  in  these  modern 
times  do  we  find  that  we  shall  do  but  little  good  if 
we  attempt  merely  to  ransom  our  modern  slaves 
chained  in  the  galleys  of  life,  by  giving  them  gifts 
of  money  or  "  material  relief  "  which  can  but  lighten 
their  suffering  for  a  day,  a  week,  a  month,  a  year, 
or  as  long  as  the  gift  will  finance  their  surplus  needs, 
after  which  they  must  again  drop  back  into  captivity. 
Just  as  the  English  eventually  organized  powerful 
armadas  which  swept  these  buccaneers  from  the 
seas  and  exterminated  them  from  their  nests  on  land, 
so,  also,  must  we,  through  organized  endeavor,  free 

1  B.  Kirkman  Gray,  A  History  of  English  Philanthropy, 
p.  40. 


1 6  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 


our  present-day  captives  —  the  poor,  the  sick,  the 
ignorant,  the  vicious  —  by  sweeping  from  the  seas 
of  life  the  causes  which  have  reduced  them  to 
captivity. 

Charity  Benefits  Whole  Community 

Modern  activities  for  amelioration  of  distressing 
conditions  really  better  the  whole  citizenship.  As 
St.  Paul  so  truly  said,  we  are  all  "  members  one  of 
another."  Sickness  in  any  part  of  a  modern  city 
threatens  all  its  citizens.  Vice  bred  in  slums  often 
entices  the  young  men  of  the  most  select  homes. 
Poverty,  malnutrition,  and  unwholesome  living  and 
working  conditions  reduce  the  effectiveness  of  the 
workers  in  our  industries.  Gifts  for  improving  the 
lot  of  the  unfortunate  and  for  mitigating  these  evils 
thus  are  seen  by  many,  who  are  touched  neither  by 
religion  nor  justice  nor  love  of  their  fellow-man,  to 
be  excellent  investments  toward  personal  security 
and  the  continuance  of  prosperity. 

This  view  of  charity  as  a  means  of  averting  trou- 
ble is  perhaps  not  essentially  different  from  the 
amiable  theory  of  the  Dark  and  Middle  Ages  when 
the  church  put  stress  on  almsgiving  as  a  means  for 
attaining  grace  in  the  life  hereafter,  and  for  securing 
forgiveness  of  sins.  As  the  good  St.  Chrysostom 
said,  "If  there  were  no  poor,  the  greater  part  of 
your  sins  would  not  be  removed ;  they  are  the  healers 
of  your  wounds." 

Charity  Supplies  Facts 

Further  in  the  course  of  its  service,  modern  char- 
ity does  important  research  work,  bringing  to  light 


Why?  17 

facts  as  to  the  conditions  of  life  which  serve  as  the 
basis  of  many  important  reforms  and  social  move- 
ments. Such  organized  endeavors  as  those  for 
Americanization,  prohibition,  elimination  of  child 
labor,  public  health,  mental  hygiene,  and  social  in- 
surance would  have  been  practically  impossible  of 
successful  prosecution  without  the  facts  furnished 
by  humble  social  workers  laboring  with  the  human 
disasters  which  society  produces. 

Charity  as  a  Pioneer 

Charity  also  experiments  and  pioneers  in  many 
fields  which  later,  after  becoming  firmly  established 
in  the  popular  good  will,  are  transformed  into  com- 
munity activities,  as  in  the  care  of  the  insane  and 
feeble-minded,  in  vocational  education,  in  the  pro- 
vision for  free  lunches  and  breakfasts  for  school 
children,  in  the  care  of  the  tuberculous,  in  the  devel- 
opment of  community  centers,  and  in  a  host  of 
similar  activities. 

Charity  and  Class  Conflict 

Charity  in  its  modern  sense  of  social  service  tends 
to  a  considerable  extent  to  even  up  the  inequalities 
of  life  and  to  transfer  the  surplus  of  the  more  for- 
tunate to  those  who  are  less  fortunate.  It  helps'  to 
ease  the  difficulties  of  those  who  suffer  from  the 
hazards  of  life,  such  as  sickness,  accident,  death  of 
the  wage-earner,  and  unemployment.  F*or  these  two 
reasons,  modern  charity  tends  to  prevent  friction 
between  the  classes  of  society.    Yet  it  does  not  pre- 


i8  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

vent  democratic  progress  in  human  betterment ;  be- 
cause by  the  very  practice  of  charity,  those  who  give 
thoughtfully  acquire  a  wider  view  of  human  suf- 
fering and  a  deeper  sense  of  human  wrong,  and  so 
tend  to  become  leaders  in  movements  for  social 
reform. 

Charity  and  Democracy 

An  added  factor  for  progress  in  democracy  has 
been  found  in  the  community  financial  campaigns  of 
the  World  War  years  and  after,  when  men  and 
women  of  all  social  ranks,  all  races,  and  all  creeds, 
have  been  united  as  never  before  in  drives  to  raise 
funds  for  human  betterment.  The  value  of  such  ac- 
quaintance in  building  a  more  democratic  feeling  is 
evident. 

The  influence  of  modern  charity  on  modern  com- 
munity life  which  it  so  variously  influences  is  tre- 
mendous. 

Difficulties  of  the  Modem  Giver 

Yet,  important  as  charity  seems  to  be  in  the  life 
of  the  individual  and  of  the  community,  the  question 
well  may  arise  as  to  whether  or  not  it  may  defeat 
itself.  So  many  charitable  organizations  are  spring- 
ing up  to  claim  the  bounty  of  the  giver ;  so  many 
drives  are  being  conducted  to  entice  away  his  dol- 
lars ;  so  many  organizations  are  being  interposed 
as  barriers  between  the  giver  and  the  person  in  need 
who  is  supposed  to  receive  his  gift,  that  bank- 
ruptcy, financial  and  spiritual,  seems  to  threaten  the 
giver.    What  thrill  is  left  in  giving  if  one  is  whee- 


Why:  19 

died,  and  teased,  and  cajoled,  and  threatened  by 
agencies  competing  for  his  gifts;  if  one  who  is  en- 
joined to  "love  his  neighbor  as  himself  "  never  sees 
the  neighbor  he  is  asked  to  help;  if  the  money  he 
gives  seems  to  be  gobbled  up  in  "  administration 
costs?"  Can  there  really  be  so  much  gladness  in 
giving,  after  all? 

A  Way  Out  of  the  Difficulties 

Comfort  for  distressed  givers  and  helpful  infor- 
mation for  all  givers  will  be  given  in  the  pages 
ahead.  The  discussion  will  be  as  practical  as  possi- 
ble, devoting  itself  to  the  problems  of  giving  which 
face  the  average  citizen  in  the  average  American 
city.  The  discussion  will  be  further  limited  to  giv- 
ing to  charitable  or  social  purposes  as  distinguished 
from  religious  and  educational  causes.  "  Giving " 
shall  be  held  to  include  the  contribution,  not  merely 
of  money,  but  of  personal  service  as  well.  We  shall 
attempt  to  show  how  every  giver  may  become  a 
more  sympathetic  giver,  a  more  intelligent  giver, 
and  a  more  effective  giver.  We  shall  show  how 
charity  has  sprung,  in  its  motives,  its  purposes,  and 
its  various  manifestations,  out  of  the  very  nature 
of  human  society ;  what  opportunities  for  construc- 
tive giving  lie  before  the  present-day  American 
citizen  ;  what  standards  of  business  management  and 
what  standards  of  human  service  the  giver  may  rea- 
sonably expect  of  the  charities  to  which  he  gives ; 
how  the  giver  may  plan  the  giving  of  his  time  or 
his  money ;  and  the  wholesome  tendencies  in  the  de- 


20  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

velopment  of  charity  which  he,  as  a  giver  and  a 
citizen,  can  help  to  promote  in  his  own  community. 
We  shall,  in  brief,  tell  how  one  can  make  his  giving 
a  pleasing  and  effective  combination  of  sympathy 
and  system. 


CHAPTER  II 

WHENCE? 

"  TGET  so  many  appeals  from  charities,  that  I  am 

J- going  to  quit  giving  altogether.  If  I  gave  to 
them  all,  I'd  go  broke;  and  I've  no  way  of  knowing 
which  are  worthy  and  which  are  not.  I'm  just  going 
to  pass  'em  all  up,"  once  said  a  bewildered  and 
wrathful  citizen  to  the  author. 

"  There's  too  much  duplication  between  all  these 
charities,  and  I'm  going  to  do  all  my  giving  direct," 
declared  another  suspicious  man. 

Neither  man  was  much  to  be  blamed,  either  for 
being  confused  by  the  multiplicity  of  charitable  and 
philanthropic  agencies  which  seem  to  spring  up  like 
benevolent  mushrooms  from  the  fertile  soil  of 
modern  city  life,  or  for  feeling  that  where  so  much 
organized  humanitarian  activity  is  going  on,  there 
must  be  a  good  deal  of  helping  the  same  people  and 
a  great  waste  of  money. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  both  men  were  wrong.  The 
great  number  of  philanthropic  agencies,  such  as 
associated  charities,  nursing  organizations,  hospitals, 
orphan  asylums,  humane  societies,  protective  asso- 
ciations, and  similar  agencies  which  are  to  be  found 
in  almost  any  city  of  any  size,  do  actually  meet 
human  needs ;  should  not  be  confusing  if  their  pur- 
poses are  understood;  and  need  not  duplicate  each 

21 


22  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

other's  efforts  if  they  are  organized  as  effectively 
as  they  are  in  many  cities  and  should  be  in  all  cities. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  such  confusion  and  mis- 
understanding should  have  arisen  considering  the 
nature  of  present-day  philanthropic  effort ;  for  it  is 
only  within  the  last  century  or  so  that  the  present- 
day  movement  for  the  specialization  of  charitable 
work  has  been  marked,  while  for  two  or  three  thou- 
sand years  previously  all  charitable  work  had  been 
along  the  simple  lines  of  feeding,  clothing,  and  shel- 
tering the  poor ;  housing  the  widowed,  orphaned, 
infirm,  and  aged ;  healing  the  sick ;  and  lodging  the 
wayfarers.  The  habit  of  thinking  of  charitable  en- 
deavor as  limited  to  these  simple  functions  is  not 
easily  to  be  broken.  A  people  brought  up  on  the 
Bible,  with  its  injunction  to  give  alms  to  the  poor,  is 
likely  to  think  that  this  simple  method  of  discharg- 
ing one's  duties  to  his  less  fortunate  fellow-men  will 
still  suffice ;  forgetful  that  the  change  in  all  civilized 
life  since  the  days  of  the  Prophets  includes  a  change 
in  the  conditions  of  poverty  and  in  the  means  of 
alleviating  these  conditions. 

Charity  a  Natural  Development 

We  who  pride  ourselves  on  the  excellence  of  our 
modern  civilization  are  likely  to  be  almost  startled 
at  the  discovery  of  how  many  of  our  present-day 
charitable  activities  and  modes  of  charitable  thought 
are  as  old  as  written  history — or  still  older,  for 
even  the  folklore  of  semicivilized  peoples  has  its 
reference  to  charitable  thought  and  services.  The 
truth  of  the  whole  matter  may  be  readily  revealed  in 


Whence?  23 


the  consideration  that  the  practice  of  charity  rests 
on  elemental  human  needs,  such  as  hunger,  lack  of 
shelter,  and  sickness,  from  which  forms  of  distress 
human  beings  always  have  suffered ;  combined  with 
the  perception  of  these  needs  by  human  sympathy. 
The  manifestations  of  these  needs  have  become 
varied  as  civilization  has  become  more  complicated ; 
the  means  of  meeting  them  have  become  more  intri- 
cate as  human  ingenuity  has  been  applied  to  the 
problem ;  and  sympathy  has  been  in  turn  refined  into 
religious  obligation,  civic  duty  and  social  justice. 
Still,  because  of  its  basis  in  human  need  and  in  the 
responsive  endeavor  of  the  sentiment  of  human 
brotherhood,  charity  today  is  essentially  what  it  was 
two  or  three  thousand  years  ago,  and  probably 
always  will  be  the  same  in  spirit ;  for  in  that  brief 
day  which  we  know  as  written  history,  man  has 
changed  so  far  as  we  can  see  not  one  iota,  nor  does 
there  seem  any  reason  to  think  that  he  will  change 
greatly  within  the  next  few  hundreds  or  thousands 
of  years. 

The  Greeks  as  Charitable  Inventors 

Thus,  the  ancient  Greeks,  adding  religious  sanc- 
tion to  the  genial  customs  which  had  been  developed 
out  of  the  needs  of  those  simple  times,  and  saying, 
quite  reasonably,  that  that  is  divine  which  seems  to 
be  the  expression  of  human  nature  and  to  have  some 
measure  of  good  in  it,  declared  that  those  in  need 
were  the  special  darlings  of  the  gods. 

Strangers  and  beggars  (and  some  men,  even  in 
those  remote  days,  preferred  to  live  by  their  wits 


24  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

than  by  honest  work)  were  held  to  be  under  the 
particular  guardianship  of  Zeus,  chief  of  the  gods. 
Strangers  were  entertained  at  the  tables  of  those 
whom  they  asked  for  shelter  and  were  sent  on  their 
way  rejoicing  with  gifts  of  food;  a  custom  not  dif- 
ferent in  any  essential  from  the  pleasant  hospitality 
which  still  prevails  in  the  southern  Appalachian 
Highlands  of  the  United  States,  where  wayfarers  in 
the  lonely  creeks  and  coves  of  those  mountains  so 
remote  from  recent  currents  of  progress  are 
entertained  in  generous  spirit  with  the  best  of  bed 
and  board  that  the  two-room  log  cabin  affords. 
Later  Greek  practice  provided  guest-chambers  at- 
tached to  the  houses  of  the  well-to-do,  or  even  guest- 
houses as  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  temples. 
Beggars,  too,  were  under  the  patronage  of  Zeus. 
They  received  special  consideration  at  the  frequent 
religious  feasts ;  were  given  generous  portions  from 
the  meals  of  the  rich ;  and  were  so  accustomed  thus 
to  be  provided  for  that  a  customary  part  of  their 
equipment  was  a  bag,  or  wallet,  for  scraps  of  food, 
by  which  one  might  recognize  a  mendicant  from 
afar  off.  The  Odyssey  records  that  the  faithful 
Hecuba  recommended  to  Odysseus  that  he  make 
complete  his  disguise  as  a  beggar  by  putting  on  a 
wallet. 

The  sick,  too,  were  under  the  protection  of  Apollo, 
the  god  of  healing;  and  Aesculapius,  the  first  physi- 
cian, was  deified,  so  that  his  pupils  became  priests  of 
the  god.  Temples  of  Aesculapius  served  as  hospi- 
tals, in  which  the  sick  were  treated  by  the  priest- 
doctors  ;  dispensaries  were  established  at  which  the 


IV  hence f  25 


sick  poor  and  slaves  were  treated  without  charge ; 
while  many  generous  physicians  held  it  their  first 
duty,  on  coming  to  a  city,  to  minister  first  of  all  to 
the  sick  among  the  lowest  classes  of  society. 

Thus  do  our  modern  almshouses,  hospitals,  dis- 
pensaries, and  systems  of  district  physicians  find 
their  predecessors,  in  principle,  back  in  the  very 
dawn  of  our  civilization,  in  which,  as  it  were,  the 
first  rays  of  the  sun  of  progress  struck  on  the  roofs 
of  institutions  for  the  care  of  those  in  distress. 

Rome,  Imitator  and  Luckless  Experimenter 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Romans,  who 
took  so  much  of  their  culture  from  the  Greeks, 
would  make  any  great  improvements  in  the  expres- 
sion of  their  charitable  spirit.  Their  stern  sense 
of  civic  duty,  coupled  with  a  high  religious  spirit, 
did,  indeed,  incline  them  to  use  all  the  devices  that 
the  Greeks  had  used ;  and  Rome  of  the  Republic  and 
Empire  saw  guest-houses,  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
and  visiting  physicians.  The  Greek  beggar  with  his 
wallet  was  duplicated  by  the  Roman  beggar  with 
his  sportula,  or  basket  in  which  he  carried  away  food 
from  the  table  of  his  wealthy  patron.  Greek  practice 
was,  indeed,  improved  upon  by  those  later  Roman 
philanthropists  who  created  foundations  for  the  care 
and  education  of  orphans,  in  principle  much  like  our 
modern  orphan  asylums  and  industrial  training 
schools. 

Rome,  however,  forgot  the  injunction  of  the 
Greek  philosophers  that  charity  to  be  worth  while 
must  have  a  constructive  purpose ;  and  indulged  in 


26  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 


an  experiment  in  wholesale  public  philanthropy 
which  was  disastrous  not  only  to  the  recipients  of 
the  charity  but  to  the  state  as  well.  Tiberius  Grac- 
chus, one  of  the  human  jewels  in  which  estimable 
Cornelia  rejoiced,  as  tribune  of  the  Republic  in  the 
year  133  b.  c.  decreed  that  citizens  of  the  republican 
city  might  have  wheat  at  half  price.  This  annona 
civica  quickly  degenerated  into  a  free  dole  of  corn, 
which  at  the  time  of  Augustus  was  shared  by  320,- 
000  people ;  and  under  the  later  emperors  included 
wine,  oil,  and  even  clothes  in  its  enervating  bounty. 
This  tremendous  piece  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving 
bred  shiftlessness,  pauperism,  and  dependency  to 
an  extent  which  was  a  large  factor  in  the  eventual 
downfall  of  Rome.  It  has  been  matched,  in  more 
recent  times,  by  the  Poor  Law,  passed  in  Elizabethan 
England,  which  in  two  centuries  brought  one- 
seventh  of  the  population  to  dependence  on  the  poor- 
rates;  and  by  the  unwise  "outdoor  relief"  of  not  a 
few  American  cities. 

Rome,  both  in  many  of  its  charitable  institutions 
and  in  its  unfortunate  charitable  practice,  was  not 
unmodern. 

The  Jews  and  Social  Justice 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  were  surpassed  in  inten- 
sity of  social  action  by  the  ancient  Jews.  The  Jew 
combined  his  religion  and  his  charity  so  that  service 
to  those  in  need  became  an  obligation  to  all  who 
loved  Jehovah.  The  cry  for  human  service  voiced 
by  the  Prophets  has  rung  through  the  ages.  So 
strong  was  the  feeling  of  social  duty  that  the  He- 


Whence?  27 


brew  tongue  had  but  one  word  for  both  "  charity  " 
and  "  justice."  The  Levitical  code  first  gave  voice 
to  Christ's  second  commandment,  "  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  The  customary  guest- 
houses, hospitals,  and  homes  for  the  orphans  and 
widowed  were  supplemented  in  their  service  by  the 
synagogues,  which  received  contributions,  both  in 
regular  gift-boxes  and  by  special  collection,  on  be- 
half of  the  poor  and  which  distributed  the  food  and 
clothing  thus  purchased  through  official  almoners 
who  visited  the  poor  in  their  homes.  The  charitable 
thought  and  action  of  the  Jews  proved  a  fitting  back- 
ground for  the  teachings  and  works  of  Jesus. 

Christianity  Introduced  a  New  Spirit 
A  new  note  of  practical  helpfulness  in  giving  was 
introduced  by  Christianity.  Jesus  not  merely  ad- 
jured the  rich  to  give  alms,  but  he  himself  supplied 
the  example  of  kindly  service  in  healing  the  sick, 
driving  out  the  devils  from  the  man  with  the  unclean 
spirit,  caring  for  the  children,  the  weak,  the  fallen, 
and  the  disconsolate.  He  gave  new  emphasis  to  the 
Levitical  saying,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself."  His  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  is  as 
good  a  symbol  as  we  have  of  constructive  charitable 
endeavor,  adapted  exactly  to  the  need  of  the  unfor- 
tunate man  and  calculated  to  rehabilitate  him  com- 
pletely. Jesus  understood  thoroughly  and  taught, 
by  word  and  deed,  the  principle,  now  but  newly  re- 
discovered, that  what  the  poor  need  is  "not  alms, 
but  a  friend;"  and  that  we  should  help  the  poor 
"  not  in  their  poverty,  but  out  of  it." 


28  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

Christianity  summed  up  all  that  had  gone  before 
it  in  linking  up  religion  and  human  service.  It  gave 
an  emphasis  to  the  idea  of  brotherly  love  that  has 
not  been  improved  in  two  thousand  years.  Christi- 
anity is  essentially  an  expression  of  love  for  all  chil- 
dren of  the  one  Father.  The  teachings  of  Jesus,  of 
St.  Paul,  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  of  other 
church  fathers,  supply  ample  justification  for  the 
present-day  activities  of  Christian  churches  and 
church  people  in  charitable  affairs. 

The  Church  as  Charity 

The  early  Christian  church,  with  its  common  meal 
for  all  members,  with  its  societies  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  resident  poor  and  the  entertainment  of 
strangers,  with  its  orphan  asylums,  with  its  distribu- 
tion of  offerings  by  almoners  and  deacons  under  the 
direction  of  the  bishop,  with  its  principle  that  church 
property  was  the  property  of  the  poor  and  that  gifts 
to  the  poor  were  gifts  to  the  church,  set  an  example 
which  still  links  closely  church  and  charity. 

During  the  Dark  Ages,  just  as  the  church  alone 
kept  alight  the  flame  of  learning,  so  it,  alone,  kept 
alive  the  spirit  of  charity.  The  monasteries  and 
convents  with  their  hospitals  for  the  sick  and  the 
shelterless,  their  asylums  for  the  aged  and  orphaned, 
and  their  alms  given  out  of  the  almonry  to  all  who 
might  apply,  provided  the  only  charitable  institu- 
tions ;  while  the  orders  of  friars  with  their  vows  of 
poverty  and  service,  and  the  parish  priests  working 
from  their  churches,  provided  the  only  distribution 


Whence?  29 


of  relief  and  the  only  visitation  of  the  sick  for  the 
poor  in  their  home. 

The  Perversion  of  Social  Thought 

Still,  Jesus'  followers  did  not  follow  completely 
his  example.  St.  Paul,  the  chief  interpreter  of 
Christian  thought,  put  emphasis  on  the  second  com- 
ing of  Christ,  with  the  millennium  and  the  judgment 
day  thought  to  be  near  at  hand.  In  preparation  for 
this  judgment  day,  all  good  Christians  were  to  do 
deeds  of  charity,  which  were  the  tests  of  the  good 
life.  Less  emphasis  was  put  on  the  effect  of  alms- 
giving on  the  recipient,  because  if  the  end  of  the 
world  were  coming  soon,  it  did  not  make  much  dif- 
ference whether  poverty  continued  or  not.  Thus, 
the  purpose  of  charity  was  subordinated  to  the  mo- 
tive of  doing  good  for  credit.  As  the  idea  of  an 
immediate  millennium  faded,  the  idea  of  at  least 
acquiring  credit  for  admission  to  Heaven  on  death 
increased  in  force;  and  the  purpose  of  giving  was 
transferred  from  this  world  to  the  next.  The  poor, 
it  was  held,  we  must  always  have  with  us ;  and,  as 
has  been  noted,  ecclesiastical  authorities*  tended  to 
congratulate  society  on  having  the  poor  so  that  alms 
deeds  might  be  practiced.  Naturally,  with  such  a 
misinterpretation  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  little  prog- 
ress could  be  made  in  constructive  charity.  As  C.  S. 
Loch  says  in  Charity  and  Social  Life,  "  the  peniten- 
tial system  takes  it  for  granted  that  almsgiving  is 
good  for  others,  associates  with  it  reward  or  advan- 
tage in  assisting  others,  and  puts  a  premium  on  it, 
even  though  in  fact  it  were  done,  not  with  any  defi- 


30  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

nite  charitable  object,  but  only  for  the  good  of  the 
penitent  himself.  Thus  almsgiving  becomes  de- 
tached from  charity  on  the  one  side  and  from  social 
good  on  the  other." 

Modern  Civilization  Brings  New  Methods 

While  the  age-old  principle  of  caring  for  the  poor 
through  almshouses  and  public  bounty,  through  or- 
phan asylums,  hospitals,  and  similar  institutions, 
secular  and  ecclesiastical,  has  persisted  until  the 
present  day,  new  methods  of  philanthropy  have  come 
into  existence  with  the  development  of  modern  civil- 
ization since  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

The  Pozver  of  Organization 

One  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  multiplication  of 
charities  was  the  rediscovery  of  the  principle  of 
voluntary  association,  or  of  incorporation.  Until  the 
seventeenth  century,  practically  all  charitable  effort 
outside  of  state  aid  and  the  activities  of  churches 
and  monastic  orders  had  been  by  individuals,  who 
either  gave  in  person  to  those  in  distress,  or  who  left 
endowments  for  serving  specific  purposes  after  their 
death.  The  corporatioon  had,  indeed,  been  known 
in  Roman  times,  when  towns  and  mutual-benefit 
societies  had  adopted  this  form;  but  it  had  lan- 
quished  until  the  Industrial  Revolution,  when  ex- 
panding business  had  adopted  the  device  of  the  joint- 
stock  company,  so  disastrously  exemplified  in  the 
South-Sea  Bubble. 

Charitable  persons  were  not  slow  to  see  the  ad- 


Whence?  31 


vantages  of  such  association  for  extending  their 
powers  of  doing  good.  Hitherto,  one  who  had 
wished  to  do  more  charity  than  his  own  financial 
ability  would  allow,  had  circulated  a  brief  among 
his  friends  and  acquaintances  who  signed  them- 
selves for  subscriptions  of  various  amounts  which 
were  then  expended  by  the  benevolent  individual. 
Now,  however,  the  charitable  organization,  as  such, 
was  given  continuity  of  life  and  definiteness  of  pur- 
pose. Any  number  of  subscribers  of  any  amount 
might  be  secured.  Charity  no  longer  was  limited  to 
those  who  were  in  touch  with  the  poor  and  who 
could  distribute  alms  and  render  service.  Many 
might  give  and  a  few  administer  their  gifts  on  be- 
half of  all,  and  a  prediction  of  present-day  pro- 
fessional service  was  found  in  those  philanthropists 
who  devoted  practically  all  their  time  to  these  newly 
developed  organizations.  The  modern  development 
of  charity  would  have  been  impossible  without  the 
application  of  the  device  of  voluntary  association. 

The  Diffusion  of  Knozvledge 

A  further  factor  in  the  increase  in  the  number  of 
charitable  activities  which  accompanied  the  advance 
of  civilization  was  the  force  of  imitation  made  pos- 
sible by  the  wider  diffusion  of  knowledge.  Travel 
had  become  a  recognized  mode  of  culture.  Well-to- 
do  men  who  made  "the  grand  tour"  carried  from 
foreign  countries  to  their  native  lands  accounts  of 
the  philanthropies  which  they  had  seen,  and  often 
attempted   to   establish  them.     In   the   same  way, 


32  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

immigration,  which  was  one  of  the  results  of  the 
greater  freedom  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  people, 
served  to  carry  types  of  charitable  activity  from  one 
country  to  another.  Moreover,  the  improvements 
in  printing  brought  about  cheap  newspapers  and  a 
profuse  pamphleteering,  both  of  which  devices  were 
used  to  spread  the  news  of  new  types  of  charity  and 
to  serve  as  instruments  of  propaganda  for  those  who 
wished  to  advocate  new  measures  for  human  better- 
ment ;  while  reports  of  various  charities  were  printed 
and  widely  distributed.  Public  opinion  was  discov- 
ered as  an  instrument  of  philanthropic  reform. 
Social  thought  and  experience,  thus  made  known 
to  the  masses  of  the  people,  were  bound  to  be  applied 
in  a  variety  of  ways. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  and  Social  Life 

The  Industrial  Revolution,  which  was  but  one 
phase  of  the  liberation  of  human  thought  and  action 
which  began  with  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reforma- 
tion, tremendously  altered  the  problems  of  charitable 
assistance. 

When  machines  took  the  place  of  human  hands, 
and  a  few  owners  of  machines  became  the  directors 
of  production,  great  numbers  of  people  who  previ- 
ously had  worked  away  at  various  handicrafts  in 
their  own  homes  and  supported  themselves  in  part 
from  adjacent  garden  plots  or  else  exchanged  the 
things  they  made  for  the  food  of  nearby  farmers, 
crowded  into  cities,  so  that  they  might  be  near 
those  machines ;  and  then  became  entirely  dependent 


Whence?  33 


on  them.  When  the  machines  did  not  run,  because 
of  a  slack  season,  their  operators  no  longer  had  a 
plot  of  ground  from  which  to  eke  out  a  living  and 
had  no  products  of  their  own  handicraft  which  they 
might  exchange  for  food.  Out  of  work,  they  be- 
came dependent  on  charity  as  soon  as  their  savings 
were  exhausted. 

At  the  same  time,  old  established  customs  of  life 
were  broken  down,  in  the  change  from  farm  life  to 
city  life.  An  increasing  amount  of  purchasing  had 
to  be  done  to  obtain  family  supplies,  and  an  increas- 
ing amount  of  wise  bargaining  was  necessary.  The 
worker  had  to  sell  his  service  wherever  and  how- 
ever he  could.  He  often  had  to  borrow  money  to 
help  through  dull  periods,  and  ran  into  the  perils 
of  the  loan  shark.  Moreover,  he  had  to  tend  to 
business  in  a  way  which  had  been  unnecessary  on 
the  farm.  If  he  loafed  on  the  job,  now,  he  was 
"  fired."  The  consequence  was  that  those  who  were 
deficient  in  judgment  or  in  energy  failed  to  make 
good  and  had  to  ask  for  charitable  assistance.  The 
present-day  proof  of  this  tendency  is  shown  in  the 
fact  that  in  most  American  cities,  foreign-born  peo- 
ple, who  are  less  well  adapted  than  the  native-born 
to  our  conditions  of  life  and  industry,  receive  more 
than  their  proportionate  share  of  public  and  private 
charity. 

New  Manifestations  of  Distress 

Machinery  had  painful  effects  on  human  beings. 
With  great  frequency  it  lopped  off  hands,  put  out 


34  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

eyes,  and  even  crushed  out  lives.  Industrial  diseases 
from  dust  and  chemical  vapors  took  their  toll  of 
health  and  life.  Thus,  charity  had  many  new 
charges  thrust  upon  it,  and  new  and  grave  problems 
to  face. 

With  the  crowding  of  workers  in  cities,  too,  the 
need  of  tending  to  the  so-called  "  social  problems  " 
became  evident.  When  people  lived  in  villages,  small 
towns,  or  the  open  country,  it  was  possible  to  care 
for  widows  or  orphans  by  assimilating  them  in  the 
normal  families  among  the  neighbors.  In  the  city, 
where  one  neighbor  hardly  knows  the  other,  sucb 
mutual  aid  was  impossible.  Moreover,  as  great  num- 
bers of  people  were  crowded  into  cities,  these  ills, 
which  were  inconspicuous  hitherto,  assumed  large 
proportions  because  of  the  very  number  of  people 
who  were  suffering  from  them.  A  consequence  was 
the  development  of  charitable  organizations  to  take 
care  of  these  needs. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  was  preceded  and  ac- 
companied in  European  countries  by  the  freedom 
from  serfdom  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  people. 
Many  of  these  people,  who,  while  incapable  of  self- 
support  through  natural  incapacity  and  shiftlessness, 
would  have  been  cared  for,  as  serfs,  by  their  masters, 
now  crowded  into  the  cities,  failed  to  make  good  at 
industrial  work,  and  become  clients  of  the  charities, 
whose  burden  thus  was  further  increased. 

While  the  Industrial  Revolution  increased  the 
problems  of  poverty  itself,  and  hence  the  demand 
for  charitable  assistance,  it  also  created  scope  for 
new  types  of  philanthropy. 


Whence  ?  35 


The  new  forms  of  insanity  engendered  by  the 
tenseness  of  modern  life  had  to  be  cared  for  in 
asylums,  either  private  or  public. 

The  competition  of  machine  industry  revealed  the 
presence  of  the  feeble-minded,  who,  incapable  of 
supporting  themselves  and  dangerous  as  prolific 
breeders  of  more  of  their  incompetent  kind,  had  to 
be  segregated  in  special  institutions. 

The  specialization  of  industrial  processes  and  the 
break-down  of  the  old  system  of  industrial  appren- 
ticeship brought  about  a  need  for  industrial  or  voca- 
tional training,  first  carried  on  privately,  and  more 
lately  through  the  public  schools. 

The  presence  of  large  numbers  of  women  and 
children  in  industry,  who  needed  protection  from 
adverse  hours  and  conditions  of  labor  and  from 
inadequate  wages,  led  to  the  creation  of  such 
agencies  as  child-labor  associations,  consumers' 
leagues,  etc.  The  fact  that  many  women  had  to 
work  all  day,  without  any  place  to  leave  their  chil- 
dren, caused  the  establishment  of  day  nurseries  and 
free  kindergartens,  where  the  children  might  be 
housed,  fed,  and  be  variously  instructed  during  the 
day. 

Other  types  of  philanthropy  were  brought  about 
by  the  congested  life  of  industrial  cities.  People 
were  crowded  together  into  unwholesome  tenements, 
and  better  housing  associations  were  organized  to 
improve  conditions.  Life  in  these  poorer  districts 
was  unutterably  sordid  and  dreary,  without  recrea- 
tion or  inspiration ;  and  vice  and  crime  flourished. 
Social  settlements,  with  their  clubs,  games,  classes, 


36  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

and  similar  activities,  endeavored  to  meet  the  evi- 
dent need,  and  societies  to  promote  the  establish- 
ment of  playgrounds  and  public  entertainments 
became  numerous. 

Science  Develops  Charity 

Philanthropy  was  also  affected  by  the  advance  of 
science. 

The  scientific  method  of  analyzing  facts  and  get- 
ting at  causes  was  applied  to  charity,  with  the  result 
that  the  causes  of  poverty  became  known  and  efforts 
were  made  to  eliminate  poverty  through  elimination 
of  these  causes.  At  the  same  time  biology,  psychol- 
ogy, and  sociology  came  along  with  their  evidence 
that  environment  affected  human  nature,  and  that 
by  a  change  in  environment,  character  might  be  im- 
proved. In  consequence,  the  alms-giving  or  relief 
societies  began  to  attempt  not  merely  to  feed  the 
hungry  and  clothe  the  naked,  but,  through  getting 
at  the  causes  of  distress  and  eliminating  them,  and 
through  improving  the  conditions  of  life,  to  get  the 
poor  back  on  their  feet,  independent  and  self-sup- 
porting. 

Medical  science  showed  that  disease  might  be  pre- 
vented ;  and  nursing  organizations,  clinics,  anti- 
tuberculosis associations,  specialized  hospitals,  and 
other  organizations  arose  to  cure  disease  and 
through  educational  methods  to  prevent  its  recur- 
rence. Venereal  disease  was  found  to  reduce  human 
efficiency  and  to  create  poverty.  In  consequence, 
social  hygiene  societies  have  practically  eliminated 


Whence?  37 


red-light  districts  and  seem  to  have  the  age-old  evil 
of  commercialized  prostitution  on  the  run. 

Crime  and  juvenile  delinquency  were  seen  to  be 
in  part  the  result  of  evil  conditions  of  life ;  and  the 
movement  for  social  settlements  and  playgrounds 
was  strengthened,  while  juvenile  protective  associa- 
tions and  similar  agencies  were  organized.  It  was 
further  found  that  the  punishment  meted  out  in 
jails  and  penitentiaries  failed  to  reform.  Societies 
were  formed  to  bring  about  improvement  in  prisons, 
and  institutions  were  created  to  give  men  and  women 
released  from  prison  a  new  start  in  life. 

The  Secularization  of  Charity 

At  the  same  time  that  charities  were  increasing 
in  number  and  in  variety,  a  change  was  coming  about 
in  their  control.  Until  the  Protestant  Reformation, 
practically  all  charitable  work  had  been  in  the  hands 
of  the  church.  The  dispossession  of  the  church  in 
many  countries  entirely  destroyed  such  charitable 
activity ;  while  the  appearance  of  multitudinous  de- 
nominations, together  with  the  presence  in  society 
of  increasing  numbers  of  people  who  belonged  to 
no  church  and  for  whom  no  church  felt  itself  re- 
sponsible, brought  up  problems  of  charitable  care 
which  could  only  be  met  by  nonsectarian  endeavor. 
This  tendency  toward  nonsectarianism  was  fur- 
thered by  the  fact  that  for  a  long  time  the  church 
was  indifferent  or  antagonistic  to  the  scientific  move- 
ments which  were  responsible  for  the  creation  of 
many   of   the   new   types   of   charity;    so   that   the 


1 1>  1 


38  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

churches  had  no  hand  in  the  development  of  these 
philanthropies. 

Should  the  Church  Conduct  Charities? 

The  churches  have  now  awakened  thoroughly  to 
modern  social  problems,  but  there  is  quite  a  serious 
question  in  many  quarters  as  to  how  far  an  individ- 
ual church  and  congregation  should  go  in  actual 
social  service,  such  as  providing  recreation,  caring 
for  needy  families,  running  day  nurseries  and  con- 
ducting similar  activities.  Many  people  say  that  the 
business  of  the  church  is  not  itself  to  be  a  social 
agency,  but  to  inspire  its  members  to  render  social 
service  as  members  of  the  community  in  which  they 
live  in  connection  with  established  social  agencies. 
The  sensible  answer  seems  to  be  that  if  such  service 
is  restricted  to  members  of  the  church  concerned  or 
if  it  demonstrates  a  way  of  meeting  a  community 
need  which  is  unmet,  it  is  proper;  but  if  this  church 
social  service  is  used  as  a  device  to  jockey  into  at- 
tendance at  the  church  those  who  are  not  sincerely 
interested  in  the  church  as  a  religious  agency ;  and 
if,  further,  the  fact  that  these  facilities,  because  they 
are  in  a  church  building,  both  prevent  people  of 
other  faiths  from  using  them  and  prevent  the  com- 
munity from  erecting  similar  facilities  which  would 
serve  everyone  regardless  of  creed  —  then,  actual 
social  work  by  the  church  is  out  of  place. 

The  view  to  which  increasing  numbers  of  people 
seem  to  be  coming  is  that  the  church  should  be  a 
fountain  of  inspiration,  leadership  and  support  for 
social  movements  which  are  worked  out  in  the  life  of 


Whence?  39 


the  community.  Thus,  a  city-wide  Associated  Char- 
ities adequately  supported  by  all  the  church  members 
of  the  community  is  more  useful  to  the  community 
than  a  collection  of  charitable  societies  run  by  the 
separate  churches ;  an  open  forum  fearlessly  con- 
ducted in  a  public  library  under  the  auspices  of  a 
citizens'  committee  better  than  an  open  forum  in  a 
church ;  a  recreation  center  in  a  public  school  more 
effective  than  the  same  center  in  a  church.  Church 
and  charity  should  walk  hand  in  hand.  Religion 
and  social  service  are  complements,  one  of  the  other ; 
but,  in  this  modern  age  of  specialization,  neither  can 
successfully  assume  the  functions  of  the  other. 
These  two  functions  may  be  combined  in  the  individ- 
ual man  or  woman,  who  will  find  in  social  service, 
the  practical  expression  of  his  religion,  while,  in 
religion,  the  ideal  expression  of  a  common  humanity 
which  is  the  core  of  all  true  charity. 

The  State  and  Charity 

The  state  has  not  become  the  successor  of  the 
church  in  conducting  philanthropic  effort.  It  has 
not  generally  had  the  funds  or  the  disposition  to 
experiment  in  various  kinds  of  charitable  endeavors, 
but  has  had  to  strain  every  financial  nerve  to  pave 
the  streets  and  build  the  sewers  and  lay  the  water 
mains  demanded  by  the  growth  of  city  life.  Even 
when  the  state  has  had  the  funds  and  the  disposi- 
tion, philanthropists  have  often  been  unwilling  to 
turn  over  to  it  their  cherished  projects,  because  of 
the  fear,  often  justified,  that  under  the  prevalent 
system  of  political  inefficiency  and  favoritism,  state 


40  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

philanthropy  might  do  more  harm  than  good.  Prob- 
ably the  most  important  factor  of  all  has  been  that 
most  of  our  modern  philanthropic  projects  have  not 
been  democratic  in  their  management  or  support. 
They  have  been  the  results  of  the  vision  and  the 
finance  of  relatively  few  people ;  and  the  state,  rep- 
resenting the  people,  has  not  been  sufficiently  inter- 
ested to  carry  on  activities  for  which  there  had  been 
no  popular  demand.  For  that  reason,  state  support 
has  been  chiefly  restricted  to  such  familiar  charitable 
activities  as  almshouses  and  free  hospitals. 

Humanitarianism  Fills  the  Gap 

While  science  has  progressed  and  impressed  itself 
on  charitable  endeavor,  charitable  feeling  itself  has 
increased  in  intensity.  Thoughtful  people  have  re- 
volted against  the  coarse  brutality  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries  and  the  cruel  materialism 
of  the  early  nineteenth  century.  Humanitarianism 
and  democracy  are  the  watchwords  of  the  age. 
There  is  little  wonder  then,  that  with  the  disunited 
church  unprepared  to  meet  the  social  needs  of  the 
day  and  with  the  state  often  unenlightened  and 
hardly  able  to  finance  the  growing  mechanism  of 
city,  state,  and  national  government,  kindly  people 
have  refused  to  let  these  handicaps  prevent  the  work 
which  they  felt  should  be  done  and  have  poured  into 
it  their  money  and  energy  in  amazing  quantities. 
The  multiplicity  of  present-day  philanthropies  repre- 
sents both  an  unparalleled  recognition  of  the  oppor- 
tunities for  human  service  and  an  unparalleled 
spread  of  the  spirit  of  generosity  not  only  among 


Whence?  41 


the  rich  and  well-to-do,  but  also  throughout  all  ranks 
of  society. 

More  Wealth  —  More   Giving 

The  lavish  support  of  philanthropies  has  been 
aided,  too,  by  the  fact  that  the  Industrial  Revolution 
has  created  immense  fortunes  and  a  wide  diffusion 
of  prosperity.  People  have  much  more  money  to 
give  away  than  ever  before;  and,  with  perhaps  at 
least  half  a  feeling  of  attempting  to  right  social 
injustice,  many  are  giving  their  money  in  increasing 
sums  to  aid  those  who  have  not  profited  in  propor- 
tion by  the  enormous  productiveness  of  the  modern 
organization  of  industry. 

Such,  then,  are  the  reasons,  based  in  human  nature 
and  in  the  course  of  human  events,  for  the  great 
number  of  modern  charities.  Human  needs,  human 
sympathy,  and  human  ingenuity  seeing  special  prob- 
lems which  it  tries  to  meet  in  special  ways  provide 
the  basis  for  the  manifold  social  agencies  of  the 
present  day.  We  shall  discuss  in  the  chapters  im- 
mediately following  the  chief  fields  of  service  which 
lie  waiting  for  him  who  would  plant  his  gifts  and 
bring  forth  fruit  of  human  helpfulness. 


CHAPTER  III 

"  NOT  ALMS,  BUT  A  FRIEND  " 

FIRST  of  the  fields  in  which  the  modern  giver 
has  the  opportunity  of  giving  practical  expres- 
sion to  his  good  will  toward  his  fellow-man  in  dis- 
tress is  that  of  family  welfare. 

The  intricate  and  vital  nature  of  the  problems 
which  face  him  who  would  serve  constructively  in 
this  field  is  well  indicated  by  the  story  of  the  Brights, 
the  News,  and  the  Brownings. 

When  worthless  John  Bright  deserted  his  wife 
and  three  little  girls  under  ten  years  of  age,  and  Mrs. 
Bright  found  it  impossible  to  keep  house  and  earn 
a  living  for  herself  and  the  youngsters,  the  Juvenile 
Court  put  the  children  in  an  orphan  asylum.  Mrs. 
Bright,  anxious  to  be  near  them,  secured  a  job  as 
a  practical  nurse  in  the  same  orphanage ;  but  every- 
one knows  that  life  in  an  orphanage  is  a  poor  sub- 
stitute for  home  life. 

When  Maizie  New  ran  away  with  a  male  charmer, 
she  left  behind  her  in  an  alley  hovel  a  husband  and 
four  children  ranging  in  age  from  twelve  to  five 
years.  Arthur  New,  the  deserted  husband,  did  not 
earn  enough  to  hire  a  housekeeper,  and  the  children 
were  sadly  neglected  —  underfed,  dirty,  poorly 
clothed. 

When  Mary  Browning  decamped  with  a  mascu- 

42 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend"  43 

line  friend,  she  left  in  a  downtown  rooming-house 
a  distressed  husband  and  five  small  children. 
William  Browning  found  as  much  trouble  meeting 
the  situation  as  had  Arthur  New  in  solving  his 
problem. 

At  about  the  same  time  the  Associated  Charities 
was  asked  to  aid  both  the  motherless  New  and 
Browning  families.  The  necessary  food,  fuel, 
clothing,  and  medical  aid  were  supplied ;  but  the 
young  woman  visitor  who  provided  these  necessities 
saw  that  this  material  aid  must  be  continued  until 
the  families  went  to  smash,  unless  some  change 
could  be  brought  about  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
families  and  some  new  relationship  to  life  estab- 
lished. 

She  suddenly  remembered  Mrs.  Bright,  in  the 
orphanage  with  her  children.  A  cottage  was  rented 
in  one  of  the  cheaper  suburbs  of  the  city ;  Mrs. 
Bright  was  made  lady  of  the  house ;  with  her  she 
took  her  children ;  and  the  New  and  Browning 
families  were  installed  as  boarders,  with  Mr.  New 
and  Mr.  Browning  making  regular  and  adequate 
payment  for  the  support  of  the  household.  Thus, 
all  three  of  the  families  were  made  independent  and 
self-supporting;  better  surroundings  were  provided 
than  any  one  of  the  families  previously  had  lived 
in ;  and  what  had  been  a  charge  on  society  was  made 
an  asset  —  all,  at  practically  no  expense  except  the 
time  of  a  trained  worker. 

Unorganized  giving  of  mere  alms  would  have 
been  of  practically  no  value  to  these  families.  It 
would  merely  have  postponed  their  break-up.    The 


44  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

type  of  trained  human  service  which  saved  them 
all  is  fundamental  to  effective  care  for  poor  families. 

The  Futility  of  Unorganised  Charity 

Thinking  people  long  have  recognized  that  it  is 
more  than  useless  to  give  to  a  beggar  on  the  street 
or  at  the  back  door.  Such  giving  makes  deception 
and  fraud  easy,  promotes  shiftlessness  and  pauper- 
ism, and  cannot  touch  the  real  needs  of  the  beggar, 
even  if  he  and  his  family  really  require  help. 

It  is  almost  equally  impossible  for  an  individual 
man  or  woman  to  do  a  great  deal  of  good  in  the 
care  of  needy  people.  The  difficulties  which  may 
afflict  people  in  our  modern  civilization  are  so  many 
and  so  complicated  and  the  resources  which  must 
be  called  on  to  help  work  out  these  difficulties  are 
so  various,  that  hardly  any  untrained  person,  not 
backed  by  an  organization,  can  meet  the  need  of 
the  ordinary  poor  family.  Organization,  with 
trained,  full-time  workers,  is  necessary  to  care  for 
the  poor. 

Why  Poverty  When  Jobs  Are  Plentiful? 

In  addition  to  possessing  an  unreasoning  preju- 
dice against  trained  "  charity  workers,"  the  average 
citizen  in  ordinary  times  is  apt  to  sneer  at  the  idea 
that  anyone  may  need  any  assistance.  "Anyone 
can  have  a  job  if  he  wants  one,"  he  says.  "Why 
should  anyone  need  charity  ?  " 

It  never  occurs  to  him  that  even  in  times  when 
business  is  good,  there  are  always  some  men  out  of 
work  because  of  seasonal  trades,  such  as  structural 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend"  45 

iron  work  which  ceases  in  cold  weather ;  that  there 
are  always  a  large  number  of  wage-earners  sick ; 
that  there  are  always  some  wage-earners  laid  up  on 
account  of  accidents  sustained  at  their  work.  This 
critical  citizen  does  not  think  of  the  large  number 
of  families  in  which  the  husbands  have  died,  or  have 
run  away,  or  have  been  committed  to  jail  for  offenses 
for  which  the  family  is  in  no  wise  responsible.  He 
does  not  think  of  the  considerable  number  of  wage- 
earners  whose  wages  are  not  sufficient  to  support 
families  of  ten  and  twelve  children  who  must  be 
cared  for,  no  matter  how  injudicious  it  was  to  allow 
them  to  be  born ;  nor  does  it  occur  to  him  that  there 
are  a  goodly  number  of  workers  in  unorganized  or 
unfortunate  occupations,  whose  wages  have  not 
risen,  even  in  an  era  of  high  wages,  sufficiently  to 
meet  the  still  further  increased  cost  of  living. 

Are  the  Poor  to  Blame? 

Other  heedless  citizens  say,  "Well,  if  they  are 
poor,  it's  their  own  fault."  Such  a  statement  is  as 
unscientific  as  it  is  heartless. 

Dugdale,  in  his  study  of  the  "  Jukes  "  says,  "  Pau- 
perism is  an  indication  of  a  weakness  of  some  kind, 
either  youth,  or  disease,  old  age,  or  for  women, 
childbirth.  Hereditary  pauperism  rests  chiefly  upon 
disease  in  some  form,  tends  to  terminate  in  extinc- 
tion, and  may  be  called  the  sociological  aspect  of 
physical  degeneration." 

Most  of  the  people  who,  in  ordinary  times,  are 
able-bodied  but  out  of  work,  are  out  of  work  be- 
cause they  are  not  particularly  suited  for  work ;  they 


46  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

lack  skill,  or  strength,  or  judgment,  or  reliability, 
or  even  temper,  or  ingenuity,  or  adaptability. 

The  whole  scheme  of  life  is  against  the  very  poor  ; 
and  they  cannot  be  much  blamed  if  they  fail  to  make 
good  in  life.  What  chance  in  life  has  a  boy  who  is 
bred  in  a  crowded  tenement  where  privacy  is  un- 
known, who  is  underfed,  who  lacks  parental  train- 
ing and  discipline,  who  is  never  given  a  chance  for 
wholesome  play,  who  is  forced  by  lack  of  family 
finances  to  go  to  work  before  he  has  enough  school- 
ing to  become  anything  but  an  unskilled  laborer  and 
before  he  has  attained  enough  strength  to  withstand 
the  rigors  of  strenuous  labor?  Self-made  men  are 
few  in  proportion  to  those  who  fail  under  these  con- 
ditions. 

Diagnosing  the  Socially  Sick 

The  intelligent  giver,  knowing  the  causes  of  pov- 
erty, wants  the  charity  to  which  he  gives  to  do  its 
best  to  remove  these  causes  or  to  lessen  their  effect 
on  the  needy.  He  believes  that  the  best  possible 
place  for  the  members  of  a  family  is  in  a  home  by 
themselves,  rather  than  in  a  poorhouse,  an  orphan 
asylum,  or  a  home  for  the  aged.  In  attempting  to 
preserve  the  home,  modern  charity  tries  to  make  a 
study  of  all  the  members  of  the  family  and  to  know 
their  characteristics  and  needs ;  yet  considers  the 
members,  not  as  isolated  units,  but  as  part  of  the 
family  group.  Constructive  charity  tries  to  unite  all 
the  resources  both  within  and  without  the  family 
group,  such  as  relatives,  churches,  employers,  and 
neighbors  in  aiding  the  family ;  and  it  keeps  ever  in 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend"  47 


mind  the  fact  that  not  enervating  alms  but  service 
which  leads  to  self-help  is  the  way  to  render  the 
most  permanent  help. 

Fitting  the  Treatment  to  the  Patient 

This  method  of  constructive  individual  treatment 
is  what  is  called  the  "  case  method  "  of  handling  the 
needy.  The  "case  method"  puts  the  emphasis  on 
trained  service  by  experienced  workers  properly 
supervised  in  a  competent  organization.  It  is  the 
method  used  for  the  care  of  the  poor  in  their  homes, 
by  all  modern  societies,  such  as  the  Associated  Chari- 
ties, the  charity  organization  societies,  and  the  asso- 
ciations for  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor ; 
as  well  as  the  Red  Cross,  which  since  the  World 
War,  through  its  Home  Service  Section,  is  render- 
ing service  to  the  needy  people  in  many  small  com- 
munities which  never  before  had  such  help. 

The  "  case  method  "  does,  indeed,  feed,  and  warm, 
and  clothe,  and  shelter  the  needy  as  an  emergency 
measure,  and  as  long  as  necessary ;  but,  more  than 
that,  it  tries  to  put  the  needy  in  such  a  state  that  they 
can  take  care  of  themselves.  It  may  move  the  family 
from  an  unwholesome,  tuberculosis-breeding  tene- 
ment to  a  cottage  in  the  country.  It  may  provide 
hospital  and  nursing  care  to  put  a  bed-ridden  man 
back  at  his  job.  It  may  provide  training  for  a  grow- 
ing boy  so  that  he  can  become  a  skilled  worker,  capa- 
ble of  taking  care  of  the  family.  It  may  bring  back 
a  run-away  husband.  It  may  teach  the  mother  how 
to  buy  economically,  waste  no  food,  cook  appetiz- 
ingly,  and  manage  her  house  effectively,  so  that  the 


48  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

family  income  will  be  adequate.  It  may  remove 
members  of  the  family  who  have  been  a  drag  on  it 
to  special  institutions,  such  as  those  for  the  feeble- 
minded, the  insane,  and  the  chronically  invalid. 
These,  however,  are  all  merely  variations  of  the 
principle  of  helping  the  poor  to  help  themselves. 

The  food,  fuel,  clothing,  and  shelter  provided  by 
the  charities  are  much  like  the  pills  a  doctor  gives. 
Both  are  to  provide  relief  for  an  abnormal  condi- 
tion. Just  as  one  pays  his  doctor,  not  for  his  pills, 
but  for  his  skill  in  diagnosing  the  causes  of  the  dis- 
ease and  in  removing  them,  so  one  should  expect  a 
charitable  society  to  find  its  highest  usefulness,  not 
in  providing  "  material  relief,"  but  in  finding  and 
removing  the  causes  which  hold  down  a  family. 

Why  "  Overhead  "  Is  Necessary 

Criticism  of  "  charitable  overhead "  is  frequent, 
but  unjustified.  "  It  takes  the  Associated  Charities 
thirty  cents  on  each  dollar  to  distribute  the  money 
given  to  it.  I'm  through  with  it "  is  the  usual  ob- 
jection. As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  charitable  society 
would  be  most  effective  if  it  spent  every  penny  for 
salaries  and  not  a  cent  for  "  material  relief ;"  for 
then  it  would  be  removing  the  causes  of  poverty  be- 
fore they  dragged  the  family  below  the  line  of  in- 
dependence. 

The  admirably  constructive  results  which  are  at- 
tained by  family  welfare  societies  are  secured  only 
by  a  careful  attention  to  the  "  technique  "  of  organ- 
ization. In  every  large  city,  the  society  follows  Dr. 
Chalmers'  "  principle  of  locality  "  and  has  its  skilled 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend"  49 

workers  assigned  by  districts.  These  workers  are 
backed  up  by  "  district  committees."  These  com- 
mittees are  made  up  of  social  workers,  volunteer 
workers,  ministers,  doctors,  teachers,  nurses,  and  a 
great  variety  of  other  people  familiar  with  the  dis- 
trict, who  give  practical  advice  on  working  out  the 
human  problems  presented  by  the  worker  and  pro- 
mote cooperation  between  agencies  which  might 
otherwise  duplicate  their  efforts.  Further,  a  careful 
system  of  records  is  kept,  so  that  continuous  and 
intelligent  treatment  may  be  given  families  over  a 
period  of  years,  although  the  workers  themselves 
may  change.  Expert  dietitians  are  employed  to  ad- 
vise the  workers  on  the  best  possible  feeding  of  fam- 
ilies ;  while  visiting  housekeepers  are  often  provided 
to  teach  the  women  of  poor  families  how  to  keep 
house  better  and  to  make  the  family  income  go  fur- 
ther. The  same  principles  of  specialized  function 
and  careful  management  are  followed  as  in  success- 
ful business. 

Meeting  Special  Needs  of  the  Poor 

Numerous  specialized  societies  may  be  found 
working  in  the  field  of  family  welfare. 

Religious  groups  have  their  societies.  Such  are 
the  United  Hebrew  Charities,  which  in  many  cities 
take  care  of  all  the  needy  Jewish  families ;  the  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  societies,  made  up  of  laymen  in  the 
various  Catholic  parishes,  who  take  particular  pains 
to  prevent  any  information  being  given  out  either 
of  the  names  or  of  the  amounts  of  contributors  so 
that  giving  may  be  based  on  conscience  alone,  or  of 


50  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

the  names  of  clients  (which  generally  prevents  these 
societies  from  utilizing  the  services  of  the  Social 
Service  Exchange  [see  chapter  viii])  ;  and  the  Sal- 
vation Army,  which  with  remarkable  consecration  of 
endeavor  meets  both  the  spiritual  and  material  needs 
of  the  poor.  Many  Protestant  churches  give  charita- 
ble relief  to  their  own  needy  members  and  others 
who  are  thought  "  worthy."  Such  giving  often,  un- 
fortunately, does  more  harm  than  good,  because  only 
infrequently  are  churches  equipped  with  trained 
workers  who  follow  the  principles  of  modern  "  case 
work."  Recognizing  this  difficulty,  churches  more 
and  more  are  turning  their  needy  members  over  to 
regular  charity  organization  societies  for  care  and 
are  cooperating  with  the  societies  by  making  con- 
tributions of  money,  by  supplying  volunteer  work- 
ers and  by  educating  their  members  to  understanding 
of  the  city's  social  problems.  An  interesting  kind  of 
teamwork  between  church  and  charity  has  been 
worked  out  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  where  the  city  has 
been  districted  by  the  Charity  Organization  Society, 
with  a  church  in  each  district  accepting  responsibil- 
ity, through  friendly  visiting  and  by  means  of  all  the 
material  aid  it  can  afford,  for  all  families  not  other- 
wise cared  for  by  individuals,  organizations,  or  other 
churches. 

Valuable  service  to  the  poor  is  rendered  by  agen- 
cies performing  special  functions.  Thus  the  reme- 
dial loan  societies  loan  money  at  a  reasonable  rate  on 
household  goods  and  save  the  poor  man  from  the 
clutches  of  the  "loan  shark."  Provident  savings 
societies  encourage  small  savings.    Legal  aid  socie- 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend"  51 

ties  give  legal  advice  in  non-criminal  cases  free  or  at 
low  cost.  They  often  use  the  students  of  law  schools 
for  their  "  field  work."  Free  employment  exchanges, 
bring  "the  manless  job  and  the  jobless  man"  to- 
gether. Prisoners'  aid  societies  advise  and  help  the 
prisoner's  family  when  he  is  in  custody,  encourage 
him  to  plan  a  better  life  when  he  is  released,  and 
when  he  actually  gets  out  of  prison  help  him  to  a  job 
and  help  keep  him  on  the  straight  path.  Sometimes 
these  activities  are  conducted  as  departments  of 
family  welfare  societies,  but  generally  they  are  sepa- 
rately organized.  The  latter  plan  seems  better,  for 
it  tends  to  widen  the  usefulness  of  the  special  society 
beyond  the  clients  of  the  general  charitable  agency. 

Shortcomings  of  Public  Relief 
Attention  to  the  needs  of  dependent  families  by 
private  agencies  in  many  cities  is  supplemented  or 
made  unnecessary  by  public  "  outdoor  relief  "  admin- 
istered by  a  city  department.  Often,  this  public  re- 
lief is  limited  to  specific  articles,  such  as  coal,  shoes 
for  school  children,  and  groceries  up  to  a  specified 
amount.  Generally,  public  relief  is  given  in  a  rou- 
tine way  without  any  "  case  work  "  and  without  ade- 
quate records  or  knowledge  of  what  aid  the  family  is 
already  receiving.  Thus  administered,  public  out- 
door relief  is  mere  almsgiving,  creates  pauperism  and 
wastes  the  public's  money.  Often,  public  relief  is 
used  as  the  basis  of  a  system  of  political  preferment, 
serving  to  tie  votes  to  the  party  in  power.  In  some 
enlightened  cities,  the  public  outdoor-relief  depart- 
ment has  adopted  the  merit  system  in  the  selection 


52  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

of  skilled  workers,  who  utilize  the  "case-work" 
method  of  a  plan  and  a  follow-up  for  every  case  and 
give  "material  relief  "  only  in  emergency  and  when 
reconstructive  measures  fail.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, the  private  family  welfare  agency  may  well 
turn  over  all  its  work  to  the  city ;  but  in  the  average 
city,  it  must  continue  to  do  its  work,  utilizing  so  far 
as  possible  the  relief  the  city  will  give  and  trying  to 
educate  the  city  authorities  to  the  point  where  they 
will  work  on  modern  principles  in  place  of  their  usual 
practice  inherited  directly  from  Elizabethan  Eng- 
land and  but  little  different  in  principle  from  the 
disastrous  annona  civica  of  ancient  Rome. 

A  recent  form  of  outdoor  relief  is  the  mothers' 
pension  system,  which  generally  allots  to  widows 
with  children  lump  sums  progressively  graded  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  children.  These  pensions 
are  usually  administered  through  the  Juvenile  Court, 
which  itself  is  a  product  of  late  years.  The  effective- 
ness of  mothers'  pensions  as  contrasted  with  the 
usual  public  relief  rests  on  the  possibility  that  the 
"  juvenile  judge  "  with  his  professional  training  may 
have  a  greater  sense  of  responsibility  than  the  ordi- 
nary, appointed  public-relief  official  and  is  likely  to 
have  one  or  more  juvenile  probation  officers  avail- 
able. If  the  judge  is  conscientious  and  has  social 
vision,  and  the  probation  officers  are  competent  and 
have  time  to  make  adequate  study  of  each  case  and 
give  adequate  relief,  the  system  may  work  well. 
Quite  frequently,  however,  the  doles  supplied  by 
the  mothers'  pension  system  have  to  be  supplemented 
by  relief  from  private  societies,  and  these  societies 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend''  53 


often  have  to  loan  workers  to  the  Juvenile  Court 
in  order  to  get  any  kind  of  constructive  work  ac- 
complished. 

"Over  the  Hills  to  the  Poorhouse" 

Public  "  outdoor  relief  "  is  usually  supplemented 
by  public  "  indoor  relief,"  or  the  care  of  the  needy  in 
poorhouses. 

"  So  long  as  there  shall  be  poor  people  to  be  cared 
for  by  public  charity,  a  place  of  refuge,  and  asylum 
for  worn-out  and  feeble  men  and  women,  will  prob- 
ably be  a  necessity,"  says  Alexander  Johnson,  our 
chief  authority  on  the  subject. 

Poorhouses  can  only  be  justifiable,  however,  if 
they  cease  to  be  the  miserable  catchalls  for  the  de- 
pendent and  delinquent  which  they  are  in  many 
states.  It  is  obvious  that  all  the  insane  must  be 
put  in  asylums ;  that  sufficient  space  must  be  pro- 
vided for  the  care  of  the  feeble-minded  in  special 
institutions ;  that  sanatoria  must  be  provided  by 
state  or  county  for  the  care  of  the  tuberculous  and 
the  venereally  infected ;  that  hardened  women  who 
resort  to  almshouses  to  rest  up  from  debauchery 
must  be  placed  in  reformatories ;  that  vagabonds 
and  "  hobos  "  should  find  hard  work  in  workhouses ; 
that  children  must  be  placed  in  suitable  orphanages, 
or,  better  still,  placed  out,  under  proper  supervision, 
in  good  private  family  homes.  The  almshouse  must 
indeed,  become  merely  a  "  Home  for  the  Aged  and 
Infirm,"  as  it  is  so  pleasantly  called  in  many  places. 
In  order  to  ascertain  those  who  are  eligible  to  ad- 
mission to  the  almshouse,  trained  social  workers 


54  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

must  be  employed.  They  will  not  only  divert  the 
feeble-minded,  insane,  and  otherwise  defective  to 
suitable  institutions,  but  will  get  in  touch  with  fami- 
lies and  friends  of  eligible  applicants,  to  see  that 
only  as  a  last  resort  are  even  the  aged  and  infirm 
taken  from  home  surroundings  to  institutional  life. 
Private  agencies  often  loan  trained  workers  to  make 
these  investigations,  where  public  vision  is  lacking 
and  public  funds  have  not  been  made  available. 

A  step  removed  from  the  almshouse  —  often  sev- 
eral steps  in  elaborateness  and  magnificence  —  are 
the  privately  endowed  and  supported  homes  for 
aged  men  and  women ;  more  often  for  the  latter 
than  the  former.  These  institutions  generally  go 
on  the  theory  that  "  genteel "  folk  should  be  spared 
the  disagreeable  aspects  of  the  usual  almshouse ; 
often  charge  an  admission  fee  or  require  that  all 
property  or  insurance  of  the  inmates  be  made  over 
to  them ;  and  usually  have  a  long  waiting  list  of 
applicants  for  admission. 

Another  aid  to  attacking  the  problem  of  depend- 
ency is  found  in  boarding  homes  for  working  boys 
and  girls,  which  aim  to  give  good  home  care,  with 
protection  and  recreation,  for  those  whose  wages 
otherwise  would  not  be  adequate  to  secure  these 
advantages. 

Then,  too,  there  are  the  consumers'  leagues, 
branches  of  the  National  Consumers'  League,  which 
work  to  improve  the  hours  and  conditions  of  labor 
for  women  workers.  They  make  studies  of  the 
relation  of  wages  and  of  the  cost  of  living  with  a 
view  to  bringing  about  the  passage  of   minimum 


"Not  Alms,  But  a  Friend"  55 

wage  laws  and  the  adoption  of  other  measures  cal- 
culated to  make  wages  at  least  equal  the  cost  of  the 
necessities  of  life  for  working  girls  and  women. 

Shelter  for  the  Shelterless 

For  homeless  wanderers  are  the  wayfarers'  lodges 
and  municipal  lodging  houses  which  are  conducted 
in  most  cities  of  any  size.  These  institutions  gen- 
erally put  stress  upon  a  bath  and  a  certain  amount 
of  wood-splitting  as  a  condition  of  simple  board  and 
lodging  for  men.  The  best  of  them  employ  social 
workers,  who  attempt  to  solve  the  difficulties  which 
have  set  these  men  (and  often  boys)  to  wandering 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  and  often  are  able  to  return 
them  to  home  and  family ;  but  most  of  these  insti- 
tutions have  no  such  enlightened  policy.  They  are 
busiest  in  times  of  unemployment. 

The  activities  of  these  homes  for  the  homeless  are 
often  correlated  with  the  travelers'  aid  societies. 
They  have  agents  in  railroad  and  interurban  stations, 
who  give  directions  to  bewildered  travelers,  protect 
girls  and  women  from  the  dangerous  attentions  of 
strange  men,  and  refer  to  the  proper  institutions  and 
agencies  travelers  in  need  of  help  of  various  kinds. 

The  field  of  poverty,  or  family  welfare,  it  may 
clearly  be  seen,  is  worth  the  most  serious  considera- 
tion of  the  giver  who  would  give  helpfully ;  for  the 
family,  which  is  chiefly  concerned,  is  the  unit  of 
social  life  and  on  it  rests  our  civilization.  In  this 
field,  however,  the  giver  must  exercise  judgment, 
making  sure  that  the  agencies  to  which  he  gives  are 


56  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

completely  organized  on  modern  principles  of  in- 
telligent sympathy.  The  giver  must  have  ever  in 
mind  this  slogan,  "  What  the  poor  need  is  not  alms, 
but  a  friend." 


CHAPTER  IV 
"unto  the  least  of  these" 

MARIE,  thirteen  years  old,  was  soon  to  become 
a  mother.  This  much,  at  least,  was  quite 
evident  to  the  visitor  from  the  Children's  Protective 
Association  who  called  at  Marie's  shabby  home  in 
one  of  the  most  neglected  parts  of  the  city  on  a 
bright  spring  morning.  Neighbors  had  notified  the 
association  that  Marie  was  both  neglected  by  her 
parents  and  delinquent  on  her  own  account. 

The  visitor  found  Marie  staying  home  (at  her 
age,  she  should  have  been  in  school),  caring  for 
her  little  brothers  and  sisters.  Her  father  and 
mother  were  both  away  working;  and  the  visitor 
found  that  they  usually  were  absent,  even  on  Sun- 
days, when  the  mother,  particularly,  was  likely  to 
go  away  on  a  visit.  Marie  professed  to  know  noth- 
ing of  her  own  condition. 

The  visitor  then  called  on  Marie's  aunt,  who  said 
that  the  mother  was  neither  a  good  housekeeper, 
wife,  nor  mother,  and  was  immoral  and  unconcerned 
in  the  welfare  of  her  family.  The  aunt  was  not 
surprised  at  Marie's  condition,  because  the  house 
was  the  unsupervised  meeting  place  for  all  the  chil- 
dren of  that  miserable  neighborhood. 

That  evening,  Marie's  father  and  mother  were 
found  at   home,   but   were  entirely   indifferent  to 

57 


58  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

Marie's  trouble  and  apparently  unable  to  see  any- 
thing out  of  the  way  in  the  state  of  affairs. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  days,  the  visitor  established 
a  friendly  relationship  with  Marie  and  learned  the 
pitiful  story  of  how  she  had  been  forced  to  submit 
to  the  attentions  of  two  youths  of  the  neighborhood, 
brothers.  She  had  told  her  father  and  mother  about 
it,  she  said ;  but  they  did  nothing. 

The  visitor  arranged  with  the  Salvation  Army 
Rescue  Home  to  take  Marie  and  care  for  her  until 
after  her  confinement.  Her  father  was  finally  per- 
suaded to  swear  out  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  one 
of  the  youths.    The  other  had  hurriedly  left  the  city. 

Criminal  Court  heard  the  case.  It  developed  that 
the  young  fellow  arrested  had  served  a  term  in  the 
penitentiary  for  forgery.  The  jury  returned  a  ver- 
dict of  "guilty  of  carnal  knowledge"  and  the  youth 
was  sentenced  to  eleven  years'  imprisonment.  The 
search  is  still  on  for  his  brother. 

Marie's  baby,  a  fine  little  boy,  has  been  born. 
Mother  and  child  have  been  sent  to  a  pleasant  home 
in  the  country,  where  Marie  can  earn  her  own  living 
and  forget  the  horrors  of  her  earlier  years,  while 
the  baby  grows  into  a  sturdy  young  fellow. 

Marie  is  but  one  of  the  thousands  of  helpless 
children  who  suffer  mistreatment  and  distress  of 
every  conceivable  kind  each  year ;  and  who  offer 
the  strongest  appeal  to  those  who  give. 

The  Value  and  Appeal  of  Service  to  Children 

Children,  abandoned,  neglected,  or  cruelly  treated 
by  their  parents;  children  begging;  children  with 


"Unto  the  Least  of  These"  59 

unfit  parents ;  children  kept  in  vicious  or  immoral 
associations ;  children  badly  diseased  or  undernour- 
ished because  of  deep  poverty ;  children  with  one  or 
both  parents  dead  ;  children  forced  to  go  to  work  too 
soon  for  their  well-being  or  that  of  society,  are  to 
be  found  in  every  city  of  any  size  —  and  it  is  for 
their  sake  that  a  large  number  of  child-caring 
agencies  have  been  devised. 

Work  for  children  is,  it  is  generally  agreed,  the 
most  attractive  of  all  kinds  of  charitable  endeavor. 
Children  are  so  appealing,  the  results  of  cruelty, 
neglect  and  poverty  are  so  painfully  obvious,  and 
the  happy  results  of  good  care  so  quickly  evident, 
that  child  welfare  work  appeals  strongly  to  the 
emotions;  while  the  advantages  to  the  race  of  care 
and  protection  for  children  appeal  equally  to  the 
reason.  It  is  little  to  be  wondered  at,  therefore, 
that  agencies  serving  children  are  as  numerous, 
perhaps,  as  all  other  types  of  social  endeavor  com- 
bined ;  nor  is  it  surprising,  on  reflection,  to  find  that 
practically  every  kind  of  social  agency  which  affects 
any  part  of  family  or  community  life  affects  the 
child  as  well ;  for  both  family  and  community  exist, 
in  fact,  largely  for  the  sake  of  the  child  —  the  coming 
citizen. 

Child  Protection 

The  first  function  which  the  thoughtful  giver  will 
want  to  see  exercised  in  the  care  of  children  is  the 
prevention  of  cruelty  and  of  neglect.  This  function 
is  exercised  by  the  enforcement  of  laws  concerning 
children;  by  the  removal  of  the  child  from  danger 


6o  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

of  physical  injury  or  moral  contamination  and  the 
punishment  of  the  offender;  and  by  securing  new 
guardians  when  conditions  warrant.  The  second 
function,  closely  related  to  the  first,  is  the  provi- 
sion of  new  homes  for  children  improperly  cared 
for  because  of  hopeless  poverty  or  death  of  par- 
ents. The  first  of  these  functions  is  performed 
by  such  societies  as  the  Society  for  the  Prevention 
of  Cruelty  to  Children,  the  Humane  Society,  the 
Children's  Aid  Society,  the  semi-public  Board  of 
Children's  Guardians,  and  the  juvenile  courts.  Chil- 
dren who  have  been  rescued  from  neglect  or  cruelty 
by  these  agencies  and  who  cannot  be  returned  to 
their  own  homes,  or  who  through  poverty  or  death 
or  abandonment  cannot  be  cared  for  in  their  own 
homes,  must  evidently  be  cared  for  either  perma- 
nently or  temporarily  in  institutions  or  in  private 
homes  not  their  own. 

Children's  Institutions  Numerous 

A  large  variety  of  children's  institutions  has  been 
developed.  Among  them  may  be  discovered  found- 
ling asylums,  orphan  asylums,  detention  homes,  and 
schools  under  control  of  boards  of  children's  guard- 
ians and  juvenile  courts,  and  state  schools.  These 
institutions  may  be  sharply  divided  into  those  for  the 
care  of  children  under  two  years  of  age  ;  and  for  the 
care  of  children  over  two  years  of  age.  "Among  the 
former,"  says  Amos  G.  Warner  in  his  American 
Charities,  "  the  death-rate  is  the  principal  index  of 
success  or  failure,  while  among  the  latter  the  death- 
rate  is  always  low  and  the  attention  must  be  given 


'Unto  the  Least  of  These"  61 

to  evidences  of  right  or  wrong  development  afforded 
by  the  character  and  subsequent  careers  of  the  chil- 
dren." Trained  nursing  care  and  supervision, 
enough  nursemaids  to  give  individual  care  to  the 
babies,  a  careful  individual  diet  and  continuous  med- 
ical supervision  are  necessary  for  the  institution 
which  will  successfully  deal  with  babies  and  not 
have  its  death-rate  a  scandal  and  a  shame.  Institu- 
tions for  the  older  children,  in  addition  to  providing 
good  food  and  shelter  and  clothing,  must  also  pro- 
vide facilities  for  play  and  recreation  under  trained 
leadership,  industrial  training  and  other  prepara- 
tion for  successful  life  outside  of  institution  walls. 
It  is  generally  considered  better  for  institution  chil- 
dren to  attend  public  schools  than  schools  within  the 
institution,  because  of  the  contact  with  normal  chil- 
dren which  the  public  schools  provide. 

An  institution  for  dependent  children  is  not  doing 
its  full  duty,  however,  if  it  merely  takes  good  care 
of  the  children  entrusted  to  it.  It  must  see  to  it, 
first  of  all,  that  only  such  children  are  admitted  to 
it  as  should  be  there.  This  means  that  every  appli- 
cant for  admission  to  an  institution  should  be  sub- 
jected to  a  careful  scrutiny,  through  questioning  and 
visits  to  the  home,  to  make  sure  that  the  family  is 
not  trying  to  dump  the  child  on  the  institution  and 
thus  be  free  of  the  responsibility  of  his  care.  This 
means,  of  course,  that  complete  records  of  the 
child's  previous  history  should  be  made.  Further, 
each  child,  on  admission,  should  be  given  a  thorough 
physical  and  mental  examination,  to  make  sure  that 
he  has  no  transmissible  disease  ;  or  a  mental  defect 


62  Sympathy  and  System  in  Givi 


mg 


which  would  make  him  belong  in  an  institution  for 
the  feeble-minded.  Similarly,  institutions  for  de- 
pendent children  should  not  take  delinquent  children, 
or  blind,  or  deaf  and  dumb,  or  hopelessly  crippled 
children.  They  should  be  sent  to  the  special  institu- 
tions which  are,  or  should  be,  provided  for  those 
with  special  handicaps.  Moreover,  after  a  child  is 
admitted  to  the  orphanage  every  attempt  should  be 
made  to  make  his  parents  or  guardians  pay  as  much 
as  they  are  able  for  his  support ;  and  he  should  be 
returned  to  parents  or  guardians  as  soon  as  possible. 
Finally,  if  a  child  has  no  parents  or  guardians,  he 
should  be  placed,  as  soon  as  possible,  in  a  good 
family  home,  where  he  may  grow  up  as  a  member 
of  a  normal  family.  Except  for  those  few  unfor- 
tunate children  who  because  of  unattractive  fea- 
tures or  disposition  cannot  be  placed  in  family 
homes,  and  so  must  spend  all  their  days  until  ma- 
turity in  an  institution,  all  normal  children  should 
be  kept  in  an  orphan  asylum  or  similar  institution 
only  long  enough  to  train  them  and  prepare  them 
for  placement  in  good  family  homes. 

Family  Home  vs.  Institution 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  even  a  mediocre 
family  home  is  better  than  the  best  orphan  asylum ; 
even  when  the  orphanage  adopts  the  modern  plan 
of  cottages  on  an  ample  space  of  ground  in  the 
country,  instead  of  the  huge  congregate  institutions 
within  the  city  which  arc  so  common.  In  an  insti- 
tution there  must  be  a  certain  amount  of  discipline 
and  uniformity,  a  treatment  of  children  as  part  of 


'Unto  the  Least  of  These"  63 

a  group  rather  than  as  individuals.  In  a  family, 
children  of  different  ages  learn  to  play  together,  to 
work  together,  to  take  their  share  in  family  life. 
As  Warner  says,  "  It  is  not  possible  to  raise  babies 
by  wholesale.  The  institution  baby  lacks  and  must 
lack  that  affectionate  handling  which  gives  exercise 
to  baby  muscles  and  zest  to  infant  existence  which 
makes  it  worth  while  for  the  child  to  live."  In 
greater  decree,  this  is  true,  also,  of  older  children. 
So  it  is  that  the  best  modern  practice  in  the  care 
of  children  is  to  get  them  out  of  institutions  as  soon 
as  possible  into  family  homes ;  and,  if  possible,  to 
put  them  into  family  homes  without  even  the  inter- 
vention of  an  institution. 

A  number  of  types  of  child-placing  are  now  being 
practiced.  Often  it  is  possible  to  place  children  in 
free  homes,  where  no  charge  whatever  is  made  for 
their  care.  Sometimes,  children  are  placed  in  family 
homes  at  a  moderate  rate  of  board.  Sometimes, 
children  are  indentured  out,  and  paid  a  wage  in 
return  for  their  services.  Finally,  in  a  great  number 
of  cases,  children  may  be  adopted  permanently  in 
good  families. 

A  great  variety  of  agencies  are  engaged  in  child- 
placing.  Orphan  asylums  and  other  institutions  for 
dependent  children  as  well  as  children's  aid  societies 
practice  the  placement  of  children  for  adoption  as 
one  of  their  regular  functions.  Boards  of  children's 
guardians  and  juvenile  courts  quite  frequently  place 
out  children.  Lying-in  hospitals  and  the  maternity 
wards  of  general  hospitals  are  prone  to  give  babies 
away,  as  are  private  physicians.     The  responsibility 


64  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

of  these  agencies  ranges  from  the  crooked  lying-in 
hospital  that  extracts  a  fee  from  the  unmarried 
mother  for  disposing  of  her  baby  and  another  fee 
from  the  foster  parents  for  providing  them  with  a 
baby  to  the  high-grade  Children's  Home  Society, 
with  a  modern  cottage  receiving  home  and  a  staff 
of  trained  workers. 

Children  Require  Trained  Service 

The  placing  of  children  in  foster  homes  is  a  deli- 
cate process,  dependent  upon  the  careful  adjust- 
ment of  children  to  foster  parents.  Race  and  re- 
ligion must  be  considered  in  placement.  Children 
must  frequently  be  placed  two  or  more  times,  until 
a  perfect  adjustment  is  made  between  child  and 
family.  They  must  be  visited  frequently,  to  deter- 
mine that  conditions,  thought  satisfactory,  do  not 
change.  In  consequence,  no  agency  should  be  al- 
lowed to  do  child-placing  unless  it  has  a  competent 
staff  of  trained  workers.  Hospitals  and  similar  insti- 
tutions should  be  forced  to  do  their  child-placing 
through  suitable  agencies.  It  is  inadvisable,  gen- 
erally, for  juvenile  courts  to  mix  child-placing  with 
their  usual  punitive  and  probationary  functions. 

Very  often,  an  institution  is  not  large  enough  to 
afford  the  services  of  a  full-time  trained  visitor ; 
and  the  superintendent  or  matron  is  too  busy  to  do 
this  work.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  usually 
possible  to  arrange  with  a  regular  child-placing 
society  to  loan  a  worker  for  part-time  work.  Still 
better  is  it  for  all  the  institutions  of  a  city  to  co- 
operate in  the   formation  of  a  Children's  Bureau, 


'  Unto  the  Least  of  These  "  65 

or  Home-Finding  and  Child-Placing  Association, 
which  will  have  a  staff  of  trained  workers,  Catholic, 
Jewish,  and  Protestant,  to  render  to  the  several 
institutions  the  same  service  they  would  give  if 
engaged  exclusively  by  these  institutions.  Moreover, 
such  a  bureau  can  act  as  a  clearing-house  for  depend- 
ent children,  referring  them  to  the  proper  institu- 
tions ;  can  work  to  discover  free,  adoptive  and 
boarding  homes  in  which  children  may  be  placed ; 
and  can  serve  as  a  clearing-house  for  discussion  and 
action  on  the  problems  and  methods  of  all  child- 
caring  agencies. 

The  Child  Whose  Mother  Works 

Another  problem  of  child-care  which  has  been 
met  liberally  by  modern  givers  is  presented  by  the 
mother  who  goes  out  to  work  by  the  day.  For  her 
children,  the  day  nursery  is  provided.  The  typical 
day  nursery  cares  for  children  from  six  oclock  in 
the  morning  until  six  or  even  later  at  night.  It 
therefore  provides  as  many  as  three  good  meals  a 
day  for  its  little  charges ;  has  cots  or  cribs  in  which 
they  may  take  their  naps ;  has  playroom  and  play- 
ground with  suitable  apparatus ;  conducts  a  kinder- 
garten for  the  older  children  under  school  age ;  and 
cares  for  the  children  of  school  age  after  school 
hours.  A  moderate  charge,  usually  of  five  cents 
a  day,  is  made  of  mothers  who  can  afford  to  pay  it, 
so  that  they  may  feel  that  the  service  they  receive 
is  not  entirely  charitable.  The  day  nursery  should 
be  located  where  it  may  be  readily  reached  by  one 
or  two  street-car  lines,  and  should  be  as  close  as 


66  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

possible  to  the   districts   from   which  the  majority 
of  the  mothers  using  it  come. 

A  day  nursery  is  not,  however,  doing  its  duty  if  it 
merely  houses  children  and  gives  them  food  and 
sleep  and  recreation.  It  must  provide  various  kinds 
of  individual  service.  A  physician  should  always 
be  available,  to  examine  all  applicants  for  admission 
to  see  that  they  are  free  from  infectious  disease ; 
and  to  look  over  the  whole  group  frequently  to  see 
that  no  diseases  develop.  A  trained  social  worker 
should  be  employed  for  full  or  part  time,  to  go  into 
the  homes  of  the  children  and  advise  the  mothers 
in  the  care  and  feeding  of  their  children  ;  to  organize 
classes,  if  desirable,  among  the  mothers,  in  cooking 
and  sewing ;  to  help  the  mothers  secure  suitable 
employment,  and  to  help  train  them  for  better 
employment ;  and,  whenever  possible,  to  get  the 
mother  not  to  work,  but  to  care  for  her  children  in 
her  own  home.  A  day  nursery  should  strive  to  keep 
mothers  at  home  if  the  mother  wishes  to  work 
merely  to  add  to  an  income  already  adequate ;  if  the 
mother's  work,  combined  with  home  duties,  is  detri- 
mental to  her  health ;  or  if  the  husband  is  making 
his  wife's  work  an  excuse  for  his  failure  to  work. 
A  day  nursery  can  be  of  particular  use  to  widows 
with  children ;  to  families  in  which  the  wage-earner 
is  sick  and  the  presence  of  the  children  at  home  is 
undesirable ;  during  periods  of  bona  fide  unemploy- 
ment when  the  mother  can  help  the  family  finances 
by  working ;  to  deserted  wives ;  and  to  unmarried 
mothers.  The  day  nursery  should  cooperate  closely 
with  other  social  acencies  interested  in  family  wel- 


"  Unto  the  Least  of  These"  67 

fare  or  child  welfare.  For  example,  the  Associated 
Charities  can  be  persuaded  to  provide  a  pension  or 
to  supply  food,  clothing-,  or  rent  when  it  is  better  for 
the  mother  to  stay  at  home  and  care  for  her  children 
than  for  her  to  work.  Day  nurseries,  like  orphan 
asylums,  can  profitably  combine  in  engaging  one  or 
more  social  workers  to  serve  them  all. 

Help  for  Undernourished  Children 

Still  another  type  of  child  needing  assistance  is 
the  one  undernourished  because  of  insufficient  food 
or  because  of  the  wrong  food  wrongly  prepared. 
Such  children  are  aided  by  the  free  breakfasts  and 
lunches  which  are  supplied  through  the  public 
schools.  Often,  these  children  are  collected  in  spe- 
cial groups,  given  instruction  in  foods  and  eating, 
and  inspired  to  better  eating  and  to  better  food 
habits  through  periodical  weighings  and  measurings. 
Often,  too,  the  instruction  given  in  these  classes  is 
carried  into  the  homes  through  a  trained  worker, 
who  visits  the  homes  and  advises  the  mothers  in  how 
to  buy  and  prepare  food ;  and  who  organizes  classes 
in  domestic  science  among  the  mothers.  When  a 
child  is  brought  up  to  normal  weight  and  it  seems 
that  good  food  habits  are  assured,  he  is  "grad- 
uated "  and  his  place  is  taken  by  another. 

The  "Scarlet  Letter" 

Inseparable  from  the  problem  of  child  welfare  is 
that  of  the  unmarried  mother  and  her  child,  whose 
needs  were  among  the  first  to  be  seen  by  philan- 


68  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

thropists  in  the  revival  of  humanitarian  thought  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  They  were  the  first  of 
the  unfortunates  to  whose  needs  the  good  St.  Vin- 
cent de  Paul  addressed  himself.  Every  prospective 
unmarried  mother  should  have  prenatal  care,  with 
freedom  from  worry  and  overexertion,  either  in  her 
own  home  or  some  other  private  home  in  which  she 
may  be  placed  by  social  workers,  or  in  some  such 
institution  as  the  Salvation  Army  rescue  homes  and 
the  Florence  Crittenden  homes.  Nursing  and  med- 
ical service  should  be  available.  In  case  the  pros- 
pective mother  has  applied  for  help  and  has  been 
placed  in  an  institution  or  in  a  private  home,  all 
possible  facts  should  be  ascertained  about  her  —  her 
physical  condition,  so  that  her  health  and  that  of 
her  future  baby  may  be  protected ;  her  mental  ability, 
so  that  her  capacity  to  respond  to  training  and  the 
possibility  of  keeping  her  permanently  in  an  insti- 
tution for  the  feeble-minded  as  a  protection  to  her- 
self and  society  may  be  known ;  and  as  much  as 
possible  of  her  personal  history,  so  that  the  aid  of 
relatives  may  be  secured  and  the  father  of  the 
child  brought  to  at  least  a  financial  share  in  the 
responsibility  of  caring  for  the  new  life  he  has  helped 
to  bring  into  the  world. 

Institutions  should  be  provided  for  both  white 
and  colored  mothers,  in  which  they  may  receive 
moral  strength  and  vocational  training,  so  that  when, 
finally,  they  leave,  they  will  be  prepared  to  earn 
their  own  way  in  the  world.  Very  often,  unmarried 
mothers  have  venereal  disease.  Special  wards  should 
be  provided  for  them  in  institutions  for  unmarried 


"  Unto  the  Least  of  These "  69 

mothers ;  or  special  institutions  should  be  provided 
for  their  care  until  they  become  non-infectious. 

After  the  child's  birth,  the  mother  should  stay  in 
the  institution  with  it  for  at  least  six  months,  so 
that  the  child  may  have  its  mother's  milk  and  so 
that  the  mother  may  acquire  a  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility for  it. 

Shall  the  Unived  Mother  Keep  Her  Child? 

Whether  or  not  the  mother  shall  permanently  keep 
the  child  should  be  determined  on  the  same  basis 
as  the  question  whether  or  not  a  widow  should  keep 
her  child  —  "  can  the  mother  provide  a  proper  home 
for  the  child?"  If  the  mother  gives  evidence  of 
being  a  good  mother,  every  possible  means  should 
be  exercised  to  keep  mother  and  child  together. 
They  may  be  placed  in  a  family  home,  where  allow- 
ance will  be  made  for  the  necessity  of  the  mother 
giving  time  to  her  baby.  If  this  arrangement  is 
made,  a  social  worker  should  keep  in  continued 
touch,  to  see  that  all  goes  well  with  mother  and 
child. 

The  mother,  on  the  other  hand,  may  not  be  adapted 
to  housework.  If  so,  a  position  can  be  found  for 
her  in  store  or  factory ;  and  she  can  either  leave  the 
child  in  a  day  nursery  during  the  day,  taking  it  to 
her  home  at  night ;  or  leave  it  in  a  boarding  home, 
visiting  it  once  or  twice  a  week,  and  paying  the 
expenses  of  its  care.  A  social  worker  should  be 
available,  under  these  circumstances,  to  smooth  out 
any  difficulties  that  arise. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  mother  may  be  incompe- 


/O  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

tent  and  unfit  to  have  the  responsibility  of  the  child. 
The  mother  should  be  either  placed  in  an  institution 
for  the  feeble-minded,  if  she  is  mentally  below  par; 
in  a  reformatory,  if  she  is  vicious  and  needs  correc- 
tion;  or,  if  allowed  in  society,  under  some  sort  of 
supervision  which  will  help  to  strengthen  her  against 
the  temptations  and  difficulties  she  is  sure  to  meet. 

The  illegitimate  child  taken  from  its  mother  may 
be  placed  out  for  adoption  if  it  is  certain  that  it  is 
fit  physically  and  mentally  ;  but,  if  there  is  any  ques- 
tion as  to  its  possible  feeble-mindedness,  it  should 
be  kept  in  an  institution  until  it  is  old  enough  for 
tests  to  be  made. 

In  these  ways,  the  best  interests  of  the  mother 
and  the  child  may  be  served. 

The  School  the  Fundamental  Social  Agency 

The  work  of  all  private  agencies  for  the  care  of 
children  must  be  carefully  coordinated  with  the 
work  of  the  public  schools,  which,  after  all,  consti- 
tute the  fundamental  social  agency.  If  our  schools 
are  rightly  organized,  efficiently  equipped  and 
manned  by  a  staff  of  competent  teachers,  many  of 
our  problems  of  poverty,  delinquency,  and  civic  and 
industrial  inefficiency  will  disappear.  A  school 
should  train  for  life.  It  should  give  vocational 
training  to  those  who  cannot  take  a  higher  educa- 
tion, and  vocational  guidance  to  them  when  they  go 
to  work.  It  should  conduct  part-time  continuation 
classes  for  its  children  who  must  leave  and  go  to 
work  before  completely  trained  ;  and  industry  should 
be  forced  to  allow  its  younger  workers  to  attend 


Unto  the  Least  of  These"  yi 


these  classes,  if  only  for  the  reason  that  such  train- 
ing will  make  them  more  efficient  workers.  Each 
child  should  be  treated  as  an  individual,  with  his  in- 
dividual abilities  and  needs  made  known  by  mental 
and  physical  examinations ;  with  remedial  defects 
corrected  without  charge  if  necessary;  with  his 
home  background  studied  and  improved  if  possible 
by  visiting  teachers.  The  "  case-work  "  method  mu$1 
replace  the  wholesale  method  in  education. 

An  interesting  experiment  in  making  the  school 
the  starting  point  for  all  social  endeavor  with  all 
social  agencies  working  closely  with  the  schools  has 
been  begun  in  Youngstown,  Ohio.  The  results  in 
improving  physical  condition  and  scholarship  in  one 
year  have  been  striking.  Privately  financed,  this 
experiment  may  well  be  the  precursor  of  large  public 
expenditures  for  the  establishment  of  a  similar  sys- 
tem in  schools  throughout  the  country. 

State  Supervision  of  Children's  Agencies 

All  child-caring  agencies  should  be  supervised  by 
some  sort  of  a  state  board  with  power  to  enforce 
needed  improvements  and  with  sufficient  knowledge 
and  experience  at  its  disposal  intelligently  to  guide 
institutions  desiring  advice.  Such  supervision 
seems  to  be  best  provided  through  a  state  law  requir- 
ing the  licensing  of  all  institutions  or  organizations 
or  individuals  caring  for  dependent  children  or  plac- 
ing- them.  Licenses  should  be  refused  or  revoked 
on  the  evidence  of  wrong  methods ;  and  heavy  fines 
should  be  provided  for  operation  without  a  license. 
Thus,  illlicit  child-placing  and  "  baby-farming  "  can 


J2  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

be  prevented ;  and  all  agencies  kept  up  to  a  rea- 
sonably high  plane  of  excellence. 

Two- fold  opportunity  for  the  giver  lies  in  the 
child-welfare  field  —  through  his  influence  to  see 
that  his  community  and  state  take  all  possible  meas- 
ures to  keep  up  the  standards  of  child-care ;  and  to 
give  as  liberally  as  he  can  to  agencies  which  are 
following  the  principles  laid  down  here.  He  who 
gives  thus  will  reap  dividends  in  the  smiles  of  happy 
children  and  in  the  strengthening  of  the  next 
generation. 


CHAPTER  V 

HEALTH,  WEALTH,  AND  HAPPINESS 

THE  needs  of  the  sick  and  injured- always  have 
presented  a  strong  appeal  to  human  sympathy. 
The  desire  to  assuage  the  anguish  of  those  who 
suffered  and  to  aid  those  whom  illness  and  accident 
had  rendered  impotent  has,  as  we  have  seen,  been 
responsible  for  some  of  the  earliest  charities;  and 
it  persists  as  one  of  the  greatest  incentives  to  giving 
at  the  present  day.  Added  to  the  earlier  impulse  to 
relieve  pain,  we  now  have  the  reasonable  conviction 
that  most  disease  is  preventable  and  that  it  repre- 
sents a  loss  in  earning  power  and  in  expense  for 
care  and  treatment  which  can  and  should  be  avoided. 
In  the  field  of  health  more  than  in  any  other  social 
field  are  treatment,  cure,  and  prevention  happily 
blended ;  and  the  results  of  thoughtful  giving  most 
obvious  to  those  who  like  to  know  the  good  their 
donation  does. 

The  human  basis  of  such  service  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  tale  of  Robert  Brown  as  told  by  an  "  infant 
welfare"  nurse. 

Robert,  ten  weeks  old,  was  sure  to  die,  according 
to  the  tearfully  expressed  opinion  of  his  eighteen- 
year-old  mother.  Robert  didn't  weigh  hardly  any- 
thing, she  told  her  neighbor  over  the  back  fence 
which  bounded  the  rubbish-strewn  Brown  yard,  and 

73 


74  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

he  cried  all  the  time,  and  was  all  skin  and  bones, 
and  she  didn't  know  what  to  do.  "  I'll  get  the  baby- 
nurse  for  you,"  spoke  up  the  experienced  neighbor. 

The  baby-nurse  came,  saw  and  conquered  the 
situation.  Robert  was  removed  from  his  mother 
and  from  his  condensed-milk  diet  and  taken  to  the 
Children's  Hospital,  where  he  was  kept  clean  and 
comfortable,  given  necessary  medicine  and  fed  on 
a  diet  of  pure  milk  modified  according  to  a  formula 
created  for  his  particular  needs.  In  a  month  Robert 
weighed  thirteen  pounds,  was  fat  and  well,  and  was 
ready  to  go  home. 

Back  to  his  home  he  went,  but  the  baby-nurse  went 
with  him.  She  taught  his  mother  how  to  bathe  him, 
how  to  clothe  him  properly,  how  to  make  his  bed, 
and  how  to  modify  his  milk.  She  emphasized  the 
necessity  of  a  clean  home  for  a  well  baby.  As 
Robert  grew  older,  the  nurse  kept  on  visiting,  and 
advised  the  mother  how  to  change  his  diet. 

In  consequence,  Robert  now  is  a  fine,  husky 
youngster  of  three,  who  looks  as  if  he  never  had  had 
a  sick  day  in  his  life.  His  little  sister,  aged  six 
months,  shows  by  her  chuckles  that  she  has  been 
raised  correctly  from  the  very  beginning,  for  her 
mother  before  the  baby's  birth  even  attended  a  pre- 
natal clinic,  where  she  learned  how  to  take  care  of 
herself  and  give  the  new  baby  the  best  possible  start 
in  life. 

What  Every  City  Needs 

Not  only  for  the  sake  of  such  babies  as  Robert 
but  also  for  the  welfare  of  all  its  citizens,  every 


Health,  Wealth,  and  Happiness  75 

community  should  be  thoroughly  equipped  to  care 
for  its  sick  and  injured  and  should  be  thoroughly 
organized  to  prevent  disease  and  accident.  Most 
cities  are  more  or  less  adequately  supplied  in  the 
first  respect,  because  the  painful  results  of  sickness 
and  accident  are  so  readily  to  be  seen  and  so  touch- 
ing in  their  necessity  ;  but  most  cities,  also,  are  under- 
equipped  in  the  second  respect,  because,  as  in  the 
old  song  "  you  never  miss  the  water  until  the  well 
runs  dry,"  so  you  never  miss  your  health  until  you 
lose  it. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  quote  statistics  showing 
that  the  average  loss  of  wage-earning  time  because 
of  sickness  is  two  weeks  a  year  for  every  man. 
woman,  or  child  in  our  country ;  or  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  people  who  die,  die  of  preventable  dis- 
ease; or  that  the  average  family  spends  over  fifty 
dollars  a  year  for  medicine  and  medical  service,  with 
the  burden  of  prolonged  sickness  and  unusual  heavy 
expense  often  falling  on  those  who  can  least 
afford  it. 

It  is  obvious  that  every  city  should  have  enough 
hospital  beds  to  take  care  of  those  who  are  too  sick 
for  care  in  their  own  homes,  for  those  for  whom 
home  care  is  inconvenient  or  inadvisable,  for  those 
who  are  sick  of  infectious  disease,  for  accident  and 
surgical  cases,  and  for  maternity  cases,  with  some 
means  of  expansion  in  emergency,  as  in  time  of 
disaster  or  epidemic.  Estimates  vary  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  hospital  beds  which  should  be  provided ;  and 
the  need  varies  with  the  degree  to  which  a  com- 
munity is  educated  to  the  use  of  hospitals.    A  fair 


j6  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

estimate  would  seem  to  be  six  beds  per  thousand 
population. 

Care  for  Special  Ailments 

Provision,  either  in  special  wards  or  special  hos- 
pitals, should  be  made  for  special  types  of  cases, 
including  maternity  cases,  children,  people  suffering 
from  contagious  diseases,  and  so  on.  Tuberculosis 
sanatoria  are  a  necessity  in  any  up-to-date  com- 
munity, for  it  has  been  demonstrated  that,  with 
plenty  of  good  food,  rest,  air,  and  freedom  from 
worry,  tuberculosis  can  be  cured  very  nearly  as  well 
in  any  ordinary  city  as  in  a  distant  climate.  Special 
institutions  for  women  with  venereal  disease  (and 
for  men,  too,  for  that  matter),  where  they  can  be 
kept,  if  necessary,  under  restraint,  so  that  they  will 
not  go  out  and  infect  others,  are  essential.  As  a 
relief  to  the  hospitals  handling  acute  illnesses  and 
accidents,  convalescent  wards  or  hospitals  should  be 
provided,  where  the  patients  could  get  along  with 
less  intensive  care  and  less  skilled  attention,  and 
hence,  at  less  cost.  Special  provision  should  be 
made,  also,  for  helpless  cripples  and  chronic  invalids 
such  as  often,  when  cared  for  at  home,  create  abnor- 
mal and  almost  unbearable  domestic  situations,  and 
clog  hospitals,  where  they  take  the  space  needed  for 
acute  cases. 

Shall  Those  Pay  Who  Can? 

The  question  of  whether  a  privately  managed 
hospital  shall  do  charity  work,  or  a  public  hospital 
shall  do  pay  work,  is  one  which  is  not  yet  settled. 


Health,  Wealth,  and  Happiness  77 


Many  hospitals  run  at  a  loss  on  practically  all  cases, 
so  far  as  rates  are  concerned,  and  make  up  the 
difference  by  income  from  endowment  and  by  con- 
tributions from  the  public. 

It  seems  unfair  that  a  person  who  is  financially 
able  to  pay  the  full  cost  of  hospital  service  should 
be  treated  at  less  than  cost,  at  the  expense  of  char- 
itable funds ;  but  the  hospitals  answer  often  :  '  We 
can't  raise  the  rates,  or  the  patients  wouldn't  come, 
and  we  should  lose  more  money  than  ever  if  the  beds 
were  empty."  The  situation  is  complicated  by  the 
fact  that  hospitals  run  by  religious  orders  often 
utilize  their  members  as  nurses  at  practically  no 
salary,  and  can  handle  patients  at  a  cost  far  below 
the  cost  of  hospitals  which  have  to  pay  for  all  service. 
Most  hospitals  take  some  out-and-out  charity  cases, 
and  some,  with  special  endowments  or  the  assurance 
of  large  sums  in  contributions,  cater  especially  to 
the  poor  who  cannot  pay. 

It  is  evident  that  those  who  cannot  afford  to  pay 
for  hospital  service  must  have  it,  anyway,  for  their 
own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  society.  Hence  has 
come  the  development  of  city  hospitals,  making  no 
charge.  And  with  the  development  of  the  city  hos- 
pital and  the  private  charity  hospital,  has  come  the 
abuse  of  their  charitable  intention  by  people  able  to 
pay  but  willing,  if  they  can,  to  get  without  charge 
the  service  intended  for  others.  Very  often,  hos- 
pitals desirous  of  imposing  records  of  service  and 
of  clinical  material  for  students  encourage  such 
imposition.  The  only  way  out,  under  the  present 
system,  seems  to  be  to  have  a  graded  scale  of  charges 


/8  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

for  both  public  and  private  hospitals,  on  the  basis 
of  service  rendered,  and  to  enforce  these  charges, 
through  social  workers  who  can  visit  in  the  homes 
of  the  patients  and  ascertain  their  ability  to  pay. 

Patients  Outside  the  Hospital 

Dispensaries,  at  which  people  can  receive  medical 
service  and  medicines  either  free  or  at  small  cost,  are 
quite  common,  either  as  separate  institutions,  or  con- 
nected with  public  and  private  hospitals.  Such  dis- 
pensaries may  be  either  for  general  practice,  or  for 
the  exercise  of  special  functions,  such  as  eye,  ear, 
nose,  and  throat  clinics;  dental  clinics;  tuberculosis 
clinics ;  children's  disease  clinics ;  clinics  for  the 
instruction  of  expectant  mothers ;  and  so  on.  Vene- 
real-disease clinics  are  increasing  in  use  with  the 
development  of  the  social-hygiene  movement ;  and 
through  nurses  or  social  workers  given  police  power 
should  have  the  power  of  enforcing  attendance  of 
those  with  venereal  disease  in  the  infectious  state. 

While  dispensaries  and  clinics  should  make  no 
charge  to  those  unable  to  pay,  there  is  no  reason 
why  patients  able  to  pay  should  not  pay  the  cost  of 
prescriptions  and  service ;  or  part  of  the  cost  if  they 
cannot  pay  the  full  cost. 

For  this  reason,  and  for  the  further  reason  that 
many  ailments,  particularly  of  poor  people,  are  due 
to  home  conditions,  progressive  hospitals  and  dis- 
pensaries now  are  employing  specially  trained  social 
workers  and  organizing  "  social-service  depart- 
ments." The  least  part  of  this  service  is  to  ascertain 
the  ability  of  patients  to  pay.    The  most  important 


Health,  Wealth,  and  Happiness  79 


task  of  these  departments  is  to  attempt  to  remedy 
home  conditions  tending  to  cause  disease ;  to  secure 
the  cooperation  of  other  social  agencies  in  the  care 
of  the  patient  and  his  family;  and  to  supply  infor- 
mation concerning  the  background  of  the  patient 
which  will  enable  a  more  accurate  diagnosis  and 
more  effective  treatment  of  the  patient's  ailment  by 
the  physicians. 

Caring  for  the  Sick  in  Their  Homes 

One  of  the  most  important  developments  of  recent 
years  in  service  to  the  sick  has  been  the  growth  of 
the  "  public-health  nurse  "  or  "  visiting  nurse  "  move- 
ment. The  public-health  nurse,  visiting  in  the  homes 
of  the  sick,  not  merely  gives  necessary  care,  in 
cooperation  with  the  physician  and  under  his  direc- 
tion, but  also  gives  such  instruction,  by  word  of 
mouth  and  personal  example,  in  care  of  the  sick 
and  in  household  hygiene,  that  the  whole  household 
is  permanently  bettered.  Public-health  nurses  may 
apply  themselves  to  non-contagious  cases  in  general, 
to  tuberculosis  cases,  to  the  care  of  infants  and  chil- 
dren, or  to  contagious  diseases.  Generally,  nurses 
caring  for  special  types  of  cases  handle  only  the  one 
kind;. but  sometimes,  in  the  interest  of  economical 
covering  of  the  greatest  number  of  patients,  one 
nurse  does  all  types  of  work  in  the  district  assigned 
her  excepting  the  care  of  contagious  diseases.  Pub- 
lic-health nurses  quite  generally  work  under  private 
organizations;  but,  increasingly  this  work  is  done 
also  under  municipal  direction  and  finance. 

Parallel  to  the   work  of  the  public-health  nurse 


So  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

runs  the  work  of  the  district  physician,  usually  an 
employee  of  the  city  health  department,  and  usually 
a  young  physician  who  has  not  yet  worked  up  a 
practice.  He  gives  free  medical  care  to  indigent 
patients  in  the  district  to  which  he  is  assigned. 

Closely  connected  with  the  public-health  nurse  and 
the  district  physician  are  the  school  nurse  and  the 
school  physician,  who  examine  school  children  for 
diseases  and  defects,  and  report  to  the  parents  of 
the  children  special  action  which  should  be  taken. 
In  the  schools,  also,  a  great  deal  can  be  done  to 
improve  the  health  of  the  children  and  of  the  next 
generation  by  instruction  in  physical  education  and 
personal  hygiene.  In  many  states  such  instruction 
is  required  by  state  law. 

Open-air  schools,  in  which  all  instruction  is  in 
the  open  air,  are  useful  in  improving  the  condition  of 
children  who  are  anemic  or  who  have  been  exposed 
to  tuberculosis  or  are  predisposed  to  it. 

The  Maimed,  the  Halt,  and  the  Blind 
One  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  connected  with 
health  work  is  the  care  of  the  physically  handi- 
capped—  of  those  who  are  crippled,  deaf,  dumb, 
blind,  or  suffering  from  two  or  more  of  these  defects. 
Special  allowance  must  be  made  for  these  defects, 
and  special  training  and  treatment  provided  for  those 
suffering  from  them. 

The  treatment  of  all  the  handicapped  is  the  same 
in  principle  — the  hospital  care  of  those  whom  medi- 
cine and  surgery  will  help,  the  education  of  all  possi- 
ble   handicapped  persons  to   full  or  partial    self- 


Health,  Wealth,  and  Happiness  81 

support,  and  care  by  the  state  or  community  for 
those  who  cannot  help  themselves. 

Hoiv  to  Help  the  Crippled  Child 

The  program  for  the  care  of  cripples  is  typical  of 
all  these  groups. 

Very  nearly  half  of  the  cripples  become  handi- 
capped while  less  than  fifteen  years  old;  and  a  great 
many  of  these  children  could  have  had  their  defect 
prevented  or  cured  by  early,  adequate  treatment  for 
such  ailments  as  infantile  paralysis,  rickets,  and 
bone  tuberculosis.  In  consequence,  great  emphasis 
is  placed  upon  the  hospital  care  of  crippled  children, 
and  no  charity  is  more  appealing  than  those  which 
render  such  service. 

Each  state  should  have  at  least  one  hospital  school 
for  crippled  children,  where  medical  and  surgical 
care  can  be  coupled  with  education  of  the  children 
in  the  ordinary  school  subjects  and  in  vocational 
work.  Such  hospitals  should  have  social  workers  or 
nurses  to  cover  the  state  and  discover  children  who 
need  treatment  and  to  follow  up  those  who  are  dis- 
charged from  the  hospital  to  see  that  proper  care 
and  treatment  are  given.  Often,  such  hospitals  are 
supplemented  by  convalescent  hospitals  for  children 
who  have  improved  beyond  the  need  of  the  special 
hospital's  care. 

In  connection  with  hospitals  or  hospital  wards  for 
crippled  children,  dispensaries  should  be  conducted 
for  children  who  live  near  enough  to  be  brought  from 
their  own  homes  for  treatment,  and  in  whose  homes 
adequate  care  can  be  given.     This  dispensary  care 


82  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

should  be  followed  by  the  visits  of  the  nurse  to  the 
home. 

The  education  of  the  crippled  child  is  doubly 
important,  not  only  because  he  needs  special  train- 
ing so  that  he  may  overcome  his  handicap,  but  also 
because  it  is  difficult,  often,  to  get  him  to  go  to  school 
when  school  is  provided.  The  vocational  training, 
which  should  be  given  all  crippled  children  to  fit 
them  if  possible  for  some  useful  activity,  should  be 
made  to  fit  in  with  the  general  vocational  training  of 
the  community,  state,  and  nation.  A  great  impetus 
to  vocational  training  for  the  crippled  has  been  given 
by  the  attention  paid,  during  and  after  the  war,  to 
training  for  crippled  soldiers ;  and  federal  aid, 
recently  granted  to  local  agencies  doing  approved 
vocational  training,  is  sure  to  help  still  further  this 
most  important  activity. 

The  education  of  the  crippled  child  may  go  on  in 
hospital  schools  or  in  day  schools,  either  private  or 
part  of  the  public-school  system.  The  day  schools 
should  have  omnibus  service  for  the  children,  out- 
door schoolrooms,  lunches,  and  special  diet  according 
to  the  physician's  orders,  and  careful  medical  and 
nursing  supervision. 

Crippled  children  thus  cared  for  and  trained  may 
often  be  cured  of  their  handicaps,  or  else  may  so 
overcome  them  that  they  will  be  happy,  self-sufficient 
members  of  society. 

Giving  the  Crippled  Man  a  Chance 

The  crippled  adult  needs,  first  of  all,  hospital 
care,  and  then  training  to  adapt  himself  to  his  new 


Health.  Wealth,  and  Happiness  83 

circumstances  in  life.  This  training  should  include 
the  use  of  any  appliances  which  may  be  necessary 
and,  quite  possibly,  a  new  occupation  to  take  the 
place  of  one  made  impossible  by  the  crippling  acci- 
dent. Such  training  can  be  given  through  hospitals, 
trade  schools,  and  special  "  bureaus  for  the  handi- 
capped." 

The  crippled  adult  next  needs  a  chance  to  work, 
if  possible.  He  may  be  placed  in  ordinary  industry 
or  business  —  after  the  objection  of  the  employer  to 
the  extra  hazard  of  employing  a  cripple  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Workmen's  Compensation  law 
has  been  removed  and  work  has  been  found  to  which 
the  cripple  is  suited.  Such  employment  service  may- 
be rendered  by  social  workers  in  a  "  bureau  for  the 
handicapped."  Crippled  workers  who  cannot  go  into 
ordinary  industry  may  be  employed  in  special  work- 
shops for  the  handicapped,  where  suitable  work  is 
provided,  or  in  their  own  homes,  at  such  industries 
as  needlework,  chair  caning,  wood  carving,  and  so 
on.  Those  who  are  absolutely  helpless  can  be  cared 
for  permanently  in  homes  for  the  incurable  and 
infirm. 

The  interests  of  cripples  may  well  be  looked  after 
in  each  community  of  any  size  by  a  "bureau  for 
the  handicapped,"  which  will  coordinate  all  the 
agencies  interested  in  the  problem  of  the  crippled 
and  employ  competent  workers  to  meet  the  various 
needs  of  the  cripples  outside  of  institutions.  Of 
particular  value  would  be  the  endeavors  of  such  a 
bureau  to  lessen  the  number  of  cripples  through  the 
prevention  of  accidents,  the  lessening  of  infantile 


84  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

paralysis,  and  the  early  treatment  of  all  cases  where 
crippling  was  threatened. 

Eyes  for  the  Blind 

Provision  for  the  blind  closely  follows  that  for 
the  crippled.  Hospital  treatment,  institutional  and 
day  schools,  vocational  training,  and  other  helpful 
services  are  about  the  same  in  principle,  if  different 
in  detail.  A  smaller  proportion  of  the  blind  than 
of  the  crippled  are  self-supporting,  and  hence  more 
of  them  require  either  institutional  care  or  pension- 
ing in  their  homes.  More  than  half  of  all  blindness 
is  said  to  be  preventable,  and  great  service  in  pre- 
vention of  blindness  as  well  as  in  other  services  to 
the  blind  can  be  rendered  by  properly  equipped 
"  societies  for  the  conservation  of  vision  "  and  by 
state  commissions  for  the  blind. 

The  problem  of  the  deaf  and  of  the  deaf  and  dumb 
is  handled  in  much  the  same  way  as  that  of  the 
crippled  and  blind,  by  "  associations  for  the  hard  of 
hearing,"  with  social,  industrial,  and  educational 
features. 

Disease  Prevention  Essential 

Important  as  is  the  treatment  of  victims  of  disease 
and  accident  it  is  still  more  important  to  prevent 
disease  if  possible.  The  first  essential  in  the  preven- 
tion of  disease  in  any  community  is  a  non-political, 
capably  managed,  adequately  financed  city  health 
department,  with  a  well-trained  and  thoroughly 
experienced  staff  whose  members  are  assured  of 


Health,  Wealth,  and  Happiness  85 

tenure  in  office  as  long  as  they  satisfactorily  perform 
their  duties. 

In  addition  are  many  private  activities  which  can 
help  to  fight  and  prevent  disease.  A  well-organized 
"  housing  and  city-planning  society  "  can  make  sure 
that  proper  legislation  for  healthful  dwellings  is 
passed  and  enforced,  and  also,  through  a  far-seeing 
city  plan,  ensure  the  development  of  the  city  along 
lines  most  wholesome  for  the  people  and  most 
effective  for  its  industrial  life.  A  proper  housing 
law  prevents  the  overcrowding  of  rooms,  of  houses 
and  of  lots,  and  provides  for  adequate  light  and  air 
for  every  room  —  surely  not  an  unreasonable  re- 
quirement. A  proper  city  plan  provides  for  the 
development  of  residential  areas  which  shall  not  be 
marred  by  industrial  plants,  for  industrial  areas  pro- 
vided with  necessary  switching  facilities ;  for  quick 
and  safe  transportation  of  workers  to  and  from 
work ;  for  the  attractive  and  harmonious  appearance 
of  dwellings  and  factories  and  stores ;  for  civic  cen- 
ters ;  and  for  many  other  details  which  will  make 
the  development  of  our  cities  follow  the  needs  of  the 
people  more  closely  than  has  heretofore  been  the 
case  in  most  American  cities. 

Most  of  all,  perhaps,  the  prevention  of  disease 
and  the  conservation  of  public  health  depend  upon 
a  thoroughgoing  educational  program  carried  on 
through  churches,  newspapers,  schools,  clubs,  and 
motion-picture  theaters,  touching  both  personal 
hygiene  and  the  larger  problems  of  health.  Such 
programs  are  often  fostered  by  "anti-tuberculosis 
associations  "  and  "  public-health  associations  ;"  and 


86  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

are  being  aided  by  the  health  centers  which  are  being 
established  by  the  American  Red  Cross. 

These,  then,  are,  in  general,  the  instruments  which 
ought  to  be  available  in  the  ordinary  community  for 
preventing  and  curing  physical  ailments.  He  who 
contributes  to  them  may  well  feel  that  he  is  helping 
to  bring  to  his  fellow-citizens  those  boons  which 
well-wishers  of  their  fellow-men  always  have  sought 
—  health,  wealth,  and  happiness. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  UNCLEAN  SPIRIT 

DRAB  and  unholy  were  the  lives  of  the  numerous 
dreary  members  of  the  Tompkins  family.  Shift- 
less Kentucky  "poor  white"  stock  mingled  with 
equally  shiftless  Ohio  "shanty  boat"  stock  soon 
after  that  autumn  day  in  1900  when  the  strange  for- 
tunes of  life  whirled  together  in  a  cheap  dance  hall 
in  Cincinnati  a  tobacco-worker,  Nellie  Grayson,  and 
an  odd-job  man,  Harry  Tompkins.  They  married 
almost  immediately.  Seven  puny  children  had  been 
added  to  the  family  when  the  spring  freshet  of  1909 
in  the  Ohio  River  caught  up  the  willing  Tompkins 
horde,  encamped,  Noahlike,  in  a  battered  and  mea- 
gerly  furnished  houseboat,  and  carried  them  on  its 
broad,  swirling,  muddy  tide  to  that  neglected,  flood- 
swept  portion  of  riverward  Louisville  known  as 
"  The  Point." 

In  the  course  of  time,  an  eighth  child  was  born ; 
but  Mr.  Tompkins  would  not  own  it,  claiming  that 
its  real  male  parent  was  Ike  Reardon,  the  landlord 
of  their  pitiful  shack.  On  the  ground  of  immorality, 
Tompkins  secured  a  divorce  and  the  custody  of  the 
children. 

Mrs.  Tompkins,  undaunted,  promptly  married 
Reardon;  and  the  couple  eventually  had  six  chil- 
dren.    Reardon.  in  the  meanwhile,  acquired  a  case 

87 


88  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

of  chronic  rheumatism.  The  children,  too  young  to 
work,  could  not  be  fed  by  Reardon's  intermittent 
labors.  The  Associated  Charities  lent  a  helping 
hand,  sent  Reardon  to  the  hospital  and  supplied  the 
family  clothes,  food,  coal,  rent  and  other  necessities. 
The  children  were  unruly  and  destructive  and  the 
three  oldest  were  finally  sent  to  the  local  reform 
school,  while  the  fourth  was  committed  to  the  Pa- 
rental Home,  leaving  only  the  two  youngest  at  home. 

Mr.  Reardon  died  in  1918.  Mrs.  Tompkins- 
Reardon  shortly  remarried  Mr.  Tompkins,  and  got 
the  court  to  return  her  four  Reardon  children  to  her 
from  the  reform  school  and  Parental  Home.  In 
addition  to  the  six  little  Reardons,  there  remained 
four  of  the  earlier  batch  of  Tompkins'  in  the  happy 
family. 

Mr.  Tompkins  soon  decided  that  the  combined 
family  was  too  large  for  him  to  support.  Any  aid 
he  might  have  had  from  his  children  was  prevented 
by  the  fact  that  one  son  had  married  and  was  strug- 
gling to  support  a  little  family  of  his  own,  while 
the  next  two  had  stolen  some  junk  and  had  been 
committed  to  the  State  Reform  School.  Mr.  Tomp- 
kins therefore  applied  to  Mrs.  Reardon's  old  friend, 
the  Associated  Charities,  for  aid. 

A  psychopathic  clinic  had  recently  been  estab- 
lished, and  Mr.  Tompkins  was  one  of  the  first  to  be 
examined.  He  was  found,  while  forty-three  years 
old,  to  have  a  mental  age  of  ten  years  —  and  his 
incompetence  and  unreliability  were  easily  to  be 
understood.  Similarly,  Mrs.  Tompkins,  thirty- 
eight  years  old  physically,  was  nine  years  old  men- 


The  Unclean  Spirit  89 

tally.  All  the  children  old  enough  to  be  given 
mental  tests  were  found  to  be  feeble-minded. 

Criminal  Court  committed  the  whole  family  to 
the  State  Institution  for  the  Feeble-minded,  but 
inasmuch  as  that  institution  is  overcrowded,  under- 
financed, and  possessed  of  a  huge  waiting  list,  the 
Tompkins'  are  still  at  large;  and  the  community  is 
suffering  not  only  the  burden  of  their  support,  but 
the  prospect  of  their  increase  and  the  menace  of 
their  potential  delinquency. 

Thus  is  exemplified  the  menace  of  feeble-minded- 
ness  which,  with  its  kindred  mental  diseases  of 
insanity  and  epilepsy,  helps  to  make  up  the  problem 
of  mental  hygiene.  This  field  of  service  presents  an 
increasingly  strong  attraction  to  the  discriminating 
giver. 

New  Light  on  an  Old  Problem 

It  is  only  of  late  years  that  the  milder  forms  of 
insanity  and  feeble-mindedness  have  been  recog- 
nized, and  that  any  realization  at  all  has  come  of 
that  tremendously  evil  effect  which  feeble-minded- 
ness, with  its  train  of  paupers,  criminals,  and  pros- 
titutes, entails  to  mankind. 

Indeed,  in  many  backward  localities  but  little 
progress  has  been  made  over  the  methods  of  the 
time  of  Christ,  when,  it  is  reported  by  St.  Luke, 
Jesus  commanded  the  unclean  spirit  to  come  out  of 
the  man  who  was  possessed  of  devils.  "  For  often- 
times it  had  caught  him :  and  he  was  kept  bound 
with  chains  and  in  fetters ;  and  he  brake  the  bands, 
and  was  driven  of  the  devil   into  the  wilderness 


90  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

.  .  .  and  [he J  ware  no  clothes,  neither  abode 
in  any  house,  but  in  the  tombs."  Chains  and  fetters 
and  iron  bands  are,  happily,  passing  as  a  means  of 
caring  for  the  insane ;  and  while  the  mental  hygien- 
ists  of  the  present  day  are  not  able,  as  Jesus  did, 
to  drive  the  devils  from  their  patients  into  swine, 
which  then  run  into  the  lake  and  thus  drown  both 
devil  and  swine,  they  do  affect  many  remarkable 
cures,  and  are  throwing  on  the  whole  problem  of 
mental  defect  a  light  which  is  sure  to  show  the  way 
to  much  better  mental  health  for  future  generations. 

"Almost  Everybody's  Crazy,  But  Me  and   Thee" 

The  extent  of  insanity  and  feeble-mindedness  in 
the  population  is  not  generally  appreciated.  The 
British  Royal  Commission  found  in  1906  that  Eng- 
land averaged  3.66  insane  per  thousand  population 
and  4.03  feeble-minded  to  every  thousand.  These 
figures  probably  would  hold  good,  in  a  general  way, 
for  this  country.  The  insane  are  more  nearly  ade- 
quately cared  for  than  the  feeble-minded  because 
their  violence  makes  them  dangerous  or  helpless  and 
hence  has  brought  about  more  adequate  institutional 
provision  ;  while  the  feeble-minded,  less  conspicuous 
although  even  more  dangerous  to  society,  have 
neither  been  recognized  nor  provided  for. 

How  to  Find  the  Mentally  Sick 

The  first  necessity  which  the  discriminating  giver 
may  help  in  providing  for  insane  and  feeble-minded 
is  a  psychopathic  clinic  in  each  community  of  any 
considerable  size,  to  which  people  suffering  from 


The  Unclean  Spirit  91 


mental  defect,  or  suspected  ot  suffering  from  it,  may 
come  or  be  brought.  This  clinic  should  be  in  charge 
of  a  physician,  skilled  in  mental  ailments  as  well  as 
in  ordinary  medicine.  He  should  be  assisted  by  a 
staff  of  psychologists,  capable  of  making  accurate 
mental  examinations ;  and  by  so-called  psychiatric 
social  workers,  familiar  with  mental  difficulties  and 
skilled  in  studying  the  homes  and  community  back- 
ground. Members  of  clinical  staffs  are  made  avail- 
able for  visiting  the  less  populous  centers  of  the 
state  periodically,  so  that  no  part  of  the  state  may 
be  without  its  mental  hygiene  service. 

For  the  insane,  such  a  clinic  examines  and  adjusts 
incipient  cases,  which  often  can  be  cured  by  a  change 
in  mental  attitude  and  in  social  background.  The 
clinic  consults  with  ordinary  medical  practitioners 
in  the  care  of  mental  patients.  It  handles  many 
mildly  insane  patients  in  their  own  homes,  making 
their  commitment  to  hospitals  for  the  insane  unnec- 
essary, and  supervises  patients  paroled  to  their  own 
homes  or  boarded  out  in  private  homes  by  these 
institutions. 

For  the  feeble-minded,  the  psychopathic  clinic 
measures  the  degree  of  mental  ability ;  and  makes 
sure,  through  mental  tests  backed  up  by  physical 
tests,  that  none  are  treated  as  feeble-minded  who  are 
actually  backward  because  of  physical  defects,  such 
as  bad  eyesight,  tonsils,  adenoids,  and  teeth,  which 
often  make  children,  who  are  really  normal  men- 
tally, seem  dull. 

In  its  service  to  normal  people,  not  mentally 
defective,  the  psychopathic  clinic  gives  advice  toward 


C}2  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

attaining  the  highest  possible  mental  health,  advises 
on  vocational  problems,  and,  for  children,  indicates 
those  who  are  unusually  capable  and  may  be  given 
special  educational  opportunities. 

Clinic  Helps  Social  Agencies 

Aside  from  its  services  to  individuals,  the  psycho- 
pathic clinic  cooperates  with  all  other  social  agencies. 

It  works  closely  with  the  courts,  supplying  the 
necessary  mental  facts  for  commitment  of  the  insane, 
feeble-minded,  and  epileptics  to  institutions  and  giv- 
ing mental  examinations  to  criminals  and  juvenile 
delinquents  to  determine  their  proper  treatment. 

It  serves  the  penitentiaries  and  reformatories  of 
the  state,  providing  information  as  to  the  proper 
treatment  of  prisoners  and  as  to  their  parole. 

It  works  with  the  public  schools,  examining  all 
children  and  indicating  those  who  are  so  bright  as 
to  be  put  in  "  opportunity  "  classes  and  those  who 
are  so  feeble-minded  as  to  require  immediate  insti- 
tutional care  or  instruction  in  special  retarded  or 
backward  classes. 

Children's  institutions  have  their  feeble-minded 
inmates  drained  off  to  the  state  institution  by  the 
tests  provided  by  this  clinic.  The  feeble-minded 
and  insane  are  taken  from  almshouses  where  .many 
of  them  now  unfortunately  still  are  confined,  and 
the  feeble-minded  from  the  insane  asylums  where 
many  have  been  wrongly  placed.  Agencies  such  as 
the  Associated  Charities,  dealing  with  needy  people 
in  their  homes,  are  given  information  as  to  mental 
ability  of  their  clients  which  enables  these  organiza- 


The  Unclean  Spirit  93 


tions  to  give  treatment  based  on  the  ability  of  their 
clients. 

The  psychopathic  clinic  is  the  necessary  adjunct 
to  institutional  care  of  those  suffering  from  mental 
diseases. 

Good  State  Law  Required 
Essential,  also,  to  such  adequate  care  ot  the  men- 
tally afflicted  in  each  state  is  a  law  providing  for 
the  compulsory  commitment  to  proper  custody  of 
all  insane  and  epileptic  persons  in  need  of  restraint 
and  all  feeble-minded  persons  of  an  age  or  a  con- 
dition to  be  a  menace  to  society. 

Treating  the  Insane  as  Sick  People 

The  insane  require  somewhat  different  institu- 
tional treatment  from  the  feeble-minded  and  epi- 
leptic. 

Insanity  is  often  curable  and  through  early  treat- 
ment of  nervous  conditions  which  lead  to  insanity 
may  often  be  prevented. 

The  first  need,  however,  in  the  care  and  preven- 
tion of  insanity  is  a  psychopathic  ward  in  a  general 
hospital  or  a  special  psychopathic  hospital,  where 
patients  may  be  observed  carefully  and  where  proper 
treatment  and  disposition  of  each  individual  case 
may  be  adequately  planned. 

Working  closely  with  these  psychopathic  wards  or 
hospitals  are  state  institutions  which  provide  various 
types  of  service  —  hospitals,  of  the  usual  institu- 
tional sort,  for  the  treatment  and  cure  of  curable 
cases  in  insanity,  with  provision  for  recreation  and 


94  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

for  various  kinds  of  industrial  activity,  along  the 
lines  of  the  "  occupational  therapy  "  so  greatly  popu- 
larized during  and  since  the  World  War ;  colonies, 
on  the  cottage  plan,  for  the  able-bodied  and  tractable 
chronic  insane,  where,  at  farm  and  dairy  work  and 
various  simple  industries,  they  may  be  happy  and 
self-supporting;  infirmaries  for  the  feeble,  infirm, 
aged,  intractable,  and  dangerous  long-resident  in- 
sane, where  suitable  care  and  protection  can  be  pro- 
vided ;  parole  of  the  milder  patients  to  their  own 
homes,  or  boarding  out  in  private  families,  where 
they  may  live  a  more  or  less  normal  life  and  possibly 
earn  their  own  living — all  this,  under  the  continu- 
ous supervision  of  competent  parole  officers,  often 
in  connection  with  the  psychopathic  clinic. 

In  this  way,  the  individual  needs  of  the  patients 
are  much  better  met,  more  cures  are  effected,  the 
patients  are  made  much  happier,  and  they  are,  in 
many  cases,  a  real  asset  to  the  state  rather  than  a 
burden ;  as  compared  with  confinement  in  a  single 
institution  of  the  old-fashioned  type. 

Treat  the  Feeble-Minded  as  Incurable 

The  feeble-minded  present  a  different  problem,  in 
many  respects,  than  do  the  insane.  Feeble-minded- 
ness  almost  always  is  hereditary,  incurable,  and 
transmissible  to  offspring.  Once  feeble-minded, 
always  feeble-minded.  The  problem  in  the  care  of 
the  feeble-minded  is  first  to  prevent  them  from  re- 
producing their  kind,  and,  second,  to  train  them 
and  to  provide  facilities  so  that  they  can  be  so  far 
as  possible  happy  and  self-supporting.     There  are 


The  Unclean  Spirit  95 

two  ways  of  preventing  reproduction  among  the 
adult  feeble-minded  —  sterilization  and  segregation. 
Sterilization,  although  simple  and  practically  pain- 
less, cannot  be  practiced  at  the  present  state  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  segregation  is  the  only  alternative. 
Moreover,  the  feeble-minded,  with  their  inferior 
mental  ability,  are  at  so  great  a  disadvantage  in  com- 
petition for  a  livelihood  with  normal  human  beings, 
that  in  general  the  best  way  of  giving  them  a  chance 
at  self-sufficient  life,  so  far  as  they  are  capable  of  it, 
is  through  putting  them  in  protected  surroundings 
where  they  can  be  directed  in  all  their  activities. 

The  starting  point  for  the  care  of  the  feeble- 
minded is  the  public  schools.  Thorough-going  men- 
tal tests  of  all  school  children  will  quickly  reveal 
those  of  subnormal  mentality.  Those  retarded  suf- 
ficiently to  be  regarded  as  feeble-minded,  after  all 
possible  physical  causes  of  their  slowness  have  been 
removed,  are  placed  in  special  classes  where  training 
adapted  to  their  mental  ability  is  given  them.  Spe- 
cial stress  is  laid  on  handicrafts  and  manual  train- 
ing. 

When  the  adolescent  period  is  reached,  and  these 
feeble-minded  children  begin  to  be  a  menace  to  so- 
ciety through  the  possibility  of  their  producing  others 
of  their  kind,  they  are  often  sent  to  a  training  school 
operated  in  connection  with  a  state  institution  for 
the  feeble-minded.  This  school  continues  the  train- 
ing along  industrial  lines  so  far  as  possible,  and  then 
turns  over  its  "  graduates  "  for  service  on  the  farm 
colony  which  is  operated  by  the  institution.  Boys 
and  men  on  the  farm  colony  can  clear  waste  land, 


96  Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

build  necessary  buildings,  and  do  all  the  usual  opera- 
tions of  farming  —  under  competent  supervision. 
Girls  and  women  can  engage  in  dairying,  weaving, 
and  other  handicrafts.  Cottages  can  provide  for  the 
proper  segregation  of  the  inmates  according  to  men- 
tal ability  and  sex. 

Of  course,  there  are  large  numbers  of  feeble- 
minded who  are  so  helpless  and  incompetent  that 
they  cannot  even  care  for  themselves,  to  say  nothing 
of  doing  any  useful  work.  They  have  to  be  given 
the  same  institutional  care  that  would  be  given  little 
children  and  babies  until  beneficent  death  comes  to 
carry  their  souls  from  the  pitiful  bondage  of  their 
inadequate  minds  and  misshapen  bodies. 

Curing  the  "Fits" 

The  epileptics  differ  from  both  the  insane  and 
feeble-minded.  Their  mental  defect  takes  the  form 
of  "  fits,"  more  or  less  severe,  which  do  not  inca- 
pacitate the  victims  continuously.  Moreover,  it  is 
thought  that  epilepsy  may  be  cured,  or  its  victims  at 
least  improved  in  condition.  For  the  more  severe 
cases,  care  on  a  farm  colony  separate  from  the 
insane  and  feeble-minded  is  given ;  but  for  the  less 
violent  cases  treatment  and  guidance  by  the  psycho- 
pathic clinic,  together  with  special  arrangements 
made  with  employers,  often  allow  the  victim  to 
remain  at  work  and  at  home. 

State  funds  are  usually  provided  to  supplement 
local  public  and  contributed  funds  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  maintenance  of  psychopathic  clinics, 
psychopathic  wards  and  hospitals,  and  special  classes 


The  Unclean  Spirit  97 


for  backward  children  in  the  public  schools,  but  pri- 
vate endeavor  should  be  willing  to  show  the  way. 
For  example,  local  "  mental-hygiene  societies,"  made 
up  of  interested  people,  in  voluntary  association,  help 
to  stimulate  public  interest  in  mental  health. 

The  field  of  mental  hygiene,  in  its  modern  sense, 
is  relatively  new  and  many  of  its  needs  are  met  by 
public  funds,  but  it  offers  opportunities  for  service 
by  contributors  who  like  to  help  in  pioneer  work- 
that  is  bound  to  be  of  value  to  individuals  and  to 
the  community. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BEATING  THE  DEVIL 

HE  WHO  wishes  to  secure  constructive  results 
for  his  gift  will  find  no  happier  location  for 
his  aid  than  in  the  field  of  leisure-time  activities, 
where  he  can  work  to  beat  that  devil  who  since  days 
of  long  ago  has  found  evil  for  idle  hands  to  do. 

Not  merely  to  those  in  abject  poverty,  but  to  all 
who  lack  opportunity  for  normal  expression  of  their 
better  selves,  may  leisure-time  activities  be  extended. 
Boys  and  girls  who  have  no  play  place  but  the  street, 
with  its  evil  companionships  and  associations,  with 
its  interrupted  and  thwarted  play,  with  its  gang  life 
built  up  of  gambling  and  fighting  and  stealing,  with 
its  total  inability  to  form  character  in  the  years  of 
life  wrhen  character  is  formed  (and  during  which 
the  average  child  spends  each  year  but  925  hours  in 
school  to  a  possible  4,703  hours  at  play)  ;  young  men 
and  women  who  have  gone  to  work  too  soon,  and 
who  after  working  hours  want  the  opportunity  for 
wholesome  recreation  freed  of  commercial  greed  and 
for  education  for  betterment  in  life  and  work;  immi- 
grants from  other  lands,  unfamiliar  with  American 
language,  ideals  and  standards  of  life,  lonely  and 
bewildered  in  our  great  buzzing  American  cities ; 
working  men  and  women,  who  with  the  reduction  in 
the  hours  of  the  working  day  have  more  and  more 

98 


Beating  the  Devil  99 

spare  time ;  those  who  by  modern  industrial  condi- 
tions are  thwarted  of  self-expression  and  from 
whose  dissatisfaction  are  bred  many  of  the  disturb- 
ances of  our  day ;  families  in  which  children  and 
parents  are  out  of  sympathy  because  of  the  lack  of 
opportunity  for  home  life  in  crowded  quarters  and 
the  lack  of  a  common  interest  and  understanding; 
all,  of  any  age  or  condition  of  life,  who,  because  of 
conditions  of  work  and  life,  need  a  change  of  activ- 
ity in  their  spare  moments,  a  fresher  view  of  life,  a 
chance  for  wholesome  play,  or  an  opportunity  for 
higher  training  and  self-improvement  —  all  these 
mav  be  served  by  him  who  gives  for  work  in  this 
field. 

An  Antidote  for  Vice 

Leisure-time  activities  present  an  antidote  for  vice 
and  dissipation.  Knowing  that  eighty  per  cent  of 
the  crime  is  committed  between  the  hours  of  six  in 
the  evening  and  midnight,  these  agencies  strive  to 
prevent  crime  and  delinquency. 

They  are  of  particular  importance  now,  since  the 
practical  elimination  of  the  red-light  districts 
throughout  the  country  and  the  disappearance  of  the 
saloon.  Their  importance  and  value  were  demon- 
strated as  never  before  during  the  World  War,  when 
the  "  morale  agencies  "  such  as  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board,  the  Knights 
of  Columbus,  and  other  leisure-time  activities  were 
credited  with  a  large  share  in  the  successful  training 
of  our  armies  here  at  home  and  in  their  victorious 
battling  overseas.     They  are  still   more  important 


ioo        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

after  the  war,  when  social  unrest  is  rife  and  when 
they,  more  than  any  other  group  of  agencies,  can 
direct  the  activities  of  the  people  in  wholesome  chan- 
nels helpful  to  the  development  of  our  democracy. 

Private  Endeavor  Necessary 

It  is  true  that  most  people  are  able  and  willing  to 
pay  for  recreation ;  but  it  is  equally  clear  that  this 
field,  so  fertile  because  its  soil  is  compounded  of 
fundamental  human  instincts,  cannot  be  left  to  ex- 
ploitation by  commercial  greed.  The  evils  of  un- 
supervised dance  halls,  "  tough  "  poolrooms  and  de- 
generate motion-picture  theaters  which  cater  to  the 
worst  elements  in  humanity  are  sufficiently  obvious. 
Activities  such  as  playgrounds,  parks,  bathhouses, 
public  dance  halls,  art  museums,  and  swimming  pools 
are  splendid  as  far  as  they  go,  but  are  necessarily 
wholesale  in  their  treatment  and  generally  limited 
by  lack  of  funds  and  stiffness  of  public  administra- 
tion to  obviously  "  necessary  "  activities.  As  the 
Cleveland  Foundation  Survey  of  Recreation  truly 
says,  "  There  is  a  wide  zone  of  recreation  needs  of 
children  and  adults  who  are  either  not  economically 
independent  or  who  have  peculiar  racial  or  social 
interests,  which  can  be  covered  at  present  only  by 
private  recreation  operated  either  on  a  cooperative 
or  philanthropic  basis.  It  ministers  to  the  children 
and  adults  of  peculiar  needs  which  can  be  met  only 
by  an  intensive  leadership  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
public  recreation  agency."  One  of  the  chief  oppor- 
tunities of  private  leisure-time  activities,  as  of  all 
philanthropies,  is  to  demonstrate  new  ways  of  meet- 


Beating  the  Devil  101 

ing  newly  discovered  needs,  and  then  to  turn  these 
activities  over  to  the  community  —  to  be,  as  it  were, 
a  sort  of  social  experiment  station. 

The  Social  Settlement  —  and  Town 

Best  known  and  most  popular  of  the  privately 
financed  leisure-time  activities  are  the  social  settle- 
ments. 

The  story  following  will  illustrate  how  the  settle- 
ments meet  individual  human  needs  in  a  flexible  and 
helpful  manner. 

The  story  begins  in  a  juvenile  court. 

"  Well,  madam,  what  have  you  to  say  for  your 
son?"  inquired  the  judge  of  a  thin,  middle-aged 
woman,  who,  with  a  shawl  over  her  head  and  her 
face  tear-stained,  stood  in  front  of  the  judge's  desk. 
Beside  her  stood  a  curly-haired,  bright-eyed  young- 
ster of  about  fourteen  years.  Ranged  roundabout 
the  walls  of  the  small  room,  sitting  and  standing, 
were  court  probation  officers,  school  truant  officers, 
social  workers,  and  other  interested  people. 

"  It  was  this  way,  your  Honor,"  quavered  the 
mother  in  a  thick  Italian  brogue  impossible  to  imi- 
tate. "  My  man  died  when  Tony  was  a  baby,  soon 
after  we  came  to  America  from  the  Old  Country, 
and  I  had  to  earn  a  living.  So  I  bought  an  old 
second-hand  clothing  store  and  lived  over  it.  It  was 
a  bad  place  to  bring  up  a  boy.  The  only  place  he 
had  to  play  was  the  street,  and  the  neighbors  and 
their  children  were  tough.  I  had  to  keep  store  and 
couldn't  keep  my  eye  on  my  Tony.  Instead  of  going 
to  school,  he  got  to  playing  around  in  pool  parlors 


102        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

or  shooting  craps  in  the  alley  back  of  the  store  with 
the  worst  boys  in  the  neighborhood.  Then  the  truant 
officer  caught  him.  I  don't  know  what  to  do  with 
him.  He's  a  good  boy,  but  he  hasn't  had  a  chance 
in  this  great  America  of  yours."  And  the  mother 
again  burst  into  tears. 

"If  you'll  put  him  on  probation  to  me,  I'll  see 
what  we  can  do  with  him,"  spoke  up  a  settlement 
worker,  to  the  judge.  "  Our  settlement  is  only  a 
block  or  two  from  where  he  lives  and  I  think  we  can 
help  him." 

And  so  Tony,  who  hitherto  had  despised  the  set- 
tlement because  it  wasn't  tough  enough  for  him,  be- 
gan a  new  life.  He  was  forced  to  go  to  school,  but 
he  discovered  that  the  teacher,  to  whom  his  friend, 
the  settlement  worker,  had  spoken  about  him,  took  a 
new  interest  in  him  and  tried  to  help  him  along. 
After  school,  he  found  joy  in  the  pool  table  in  the 
settlement  house,  where  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
victory  without  the  menace  of  gambling.  He  dis- 
covered a  group  of  boys  of  his  own  age,  lively  fel- 
lows, with  whom  he  got  to  playing  baseball  on  the 
settlement  playground,  and  taking  hikes  and  camp- 
ing trips,  and  playing  basketball  in  the  gymnasium, 
and,  finally,  in  joining  in  debates  in  a  debating  club. 
His  mother,  too,  got  to  attending  the  neighborhood 
parties  at  the  settlement,  and  with  her  son  enjoyed 
the  weekly  program  of  moving  pictures  and  com- 
munity singing. 

Tony  eventually  graduated  from  grammar  school, 
went  to  high  school,  where  he  won  honors,  while 
working  in  the  second-hand  store  afternoons,  and 


Beating  the  Devil  103 

finally  went  to  college,  from  which  he  writes  back 
joyous  letters  to  the  settlement  worker  to  whom  he 
was  put  on  probation  only  six  years  ago. 

Tony  is  but  typical  of  the  need  which  is  met  and 
the  problems  which  are  happily  solved  by  the  social 
settlements  and  other  agencies  of  a  community  work- 
ing to  meet  the  leisure-time  needs  of  its  people. 

What  a  Social  Settlement  Is 

The  settlement,  "  an  experimental  effort  to  aid  in 
the  social  and  industrial  problems  of  a  great  city,"  has 
been  defined  as  "a  home  established  in  an  industrial 
neighborhood  by  a  group  of  people  of  education  for 
mutual  helpfulness."  It  aims  to  appreciate  every  human 
interest,  and  its  distinguishing  characteristic,  according 
to  Miss  Jane  Addams,  is  "  its  flexibility,  its  power  of 
quick  adaptation,  its  readiness  to  change  its  methods 
as  its  environment  may  demand.  It  must  be  open  to 
conviction  and  must  have  a  deep  and  abiding  sense  of 
tolerance." 

The  residents  identify  themselves  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible with  the  life  of  the  neighborhood  and  through 
their  intimate  personal  contact  with  their  neighbors, 
both  individuals  and  families,  strive  to  know  conditions 
and  to  interpret  needs.  Their  relation  with  the  neigh- 
borhood is  one  of  mutual  helpfulness.  The  settlement 
resident  gains  a  knowledge  and  a  point  of  view,  and  the 
families  and  individuals  served  are  brought  into  more 
profitable  association  through  classes  and  clubs  and 
into  contact  with  public,  private,  and  social  agencies 
through  personal  sympathy  and  effort  of  the  residents. 
Because  of  the  workers'  knowledge  and  unselfish  inter- 
est the  neighborhood  is  often  interpreted  through  them 
to  the  rest  of  the  community.     The  settlement  should 


io4        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

be  sympathetic  and  of  quick  insight,  ready  to  change 
its  function  promptly  with  change  of  conditions.  (Cleve- 
land Foundation  Survey  of  Recreation.  Chapter  vi, 
page  89.) 

Meeting  Neighborhood  Needs 

The  typical  settlement  is  equipped  with  play- 
ground, gymnasium,  which  can  be  used  as  dance 
hall  and  auditorium,  gamerooms,  clubrooms,  and 
classrooms  with  equipment  for  the  teaching  of  do- 
mestic science  and  arts  and  crafts. 

Among  the  activities  within  the  settlement  are 
classes  in  a  great  variety  of  handicrafts;  social  ac- 
tivities including  social  dancing  and  folk  dancing, 
entertainments,  plays,  motion-picture  shows,  and 
neighborhood  parties ;  physical  activities  including 
gymnasium,  swimming,  games,  pool,  billiards,  ath- 
letic games,  picnics,  hikes,  and  camping ;  instruction 
in  all  phases  of  domestic  science ;  literary  pur- 
suits, including  dramatics,  story  telling,  lectures,  de- 
bating, nature  study,  civics,  English,  and  history. 
Some  settlements  conduct  community  stores  at  which 
their  neighbors  may  buy  food  at  low  cost ;  others 
conduct  community  kitchens,  which  make  possible 
canning  of  fruit  and  vegetables  at  low  cost  and 
instruct  foreign-born  women  in  the  use  of  American 
foods ;  others  maintain  community  laundries. 

Whenever  possible,  a  nominal  charge  is  made  for 
membership  in  clubs  and  classes  and  for  other  serv- 
ices, so  that  those  who  use  them  may  not  feel  they 
are  getting  "  chanty."    On  the  other  hand,  lack  of 


Beating  the  Devil  105 

ability  to  pay  does  not  prevent  a  neighbor  who  needs 
such  service  from  receiving  it. 

Settlement  activities  are  not  confined  to  settle- 
ment property ;  but  settlement  workers  extend  their 
influence  throughout  their  neighborhood,  directing 
play  in  streets  and  vacant  lots,  helping  in  the  super- 
vision of  undermanned  public  playgrounds,  directing 
clubs  and  other  groups  which  prefer  to  use  public 
halls  rather  than  the  settlement  property,  aiding  in 
vacant  lot  gardening,  helping  to  organize  the  com- 
munity life  in  every  possible  way,  following  up  and 
helping  families  which  have  passed  beyond  the  need 
of  temporary  aid  by  the  charity  organizations  and 
keeping  in  touch  with  boys  and  girls  released  on  pro- 
bation from  juvenile  courts  or  discharged  from 
children's  correctional  institutions.  The  settlement 
plant  is  merely  the  headquarters  of  a  work  which 
may  extend  throughout  the  neighborhood  or  even 
throughout  the  city. 

The  "  Y"  as  a  Recreational  Agency 

An  activity  whose  purpose  is  only  partly  recre- 
ational is  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
Its  chief  aim  is  "  to  furnish  religious,  vocational,  and 
physical  stimulation  and  development  for  boys  and 
young  men."  Its  activities  include  club  life,  home 
life,  recreation,  education,  physical  training,  music, 
and  dramatics  through  club  and  classrooms,  audi- 
torium, gymnasium,  gamerooms,  athletic  field,  swim- 
ming pools,  summer  camps,  and  similar  facilities. 
The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  states  vigorously  that  it  is  not  a 
charity,  but  it  almost  invariably  has  a  deficit  which 


106        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

must  be  made  up  by  contributions.  In  general,  its 
activities  for  men  tend  toward  self-support ;  while 
those  for  boys  and  non-members,  particularly  among 
the  foreign  groups  of  our  cities,  tend  to  cost  more 
than  they  bring  in.  In  this  last  sense,  particularly, 
is  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  a  philanthropy  and  a  social  agency. 

Much  like  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  purpose  and  method 
are  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  the 
Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association  and  the  Young 
Men's  Institutes  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church. 

Another  wholesome  recreation  activity  for  boys 
is  the  Boy  Scouts  of  America,  distinguished  by  its 
well-rounded  program  of  activities  including  out- 
door life  and  civics  sendee.  Of  a  somewhat  similar 
nature,  for  girls,  are  the  Camp  Fire  Girls  and  the 
Girl  Scouts. 

Also  of  service  to  girls  and  young  women  are  the 
vacation  savings  clubs,  which  collect  the  savings  of 
those  employed  in  stores,  office,  and  factories,  as  a 
means  of  financing  their  summer  vacations.  Direc- 
tories of  suitable  vacation  places  often  are  published 
by  these  clubs. 

The  Church  and  Play 

The  Protestant  churches,  also,  are  stepping  into 
the  recreation  field.  Church  members,  as  we  have 
said,  are  seeing  more  and  more  that  social  service 
is  but  the  other  side  of  religious  service,  and  are 
trying  to  make  their  church  plants  meet  the  needs 
of  their  communities  in  other  ways  than  merely  by 
conducting  religious  services.  The  church  audito- 
rium is  used  for  motion-picture  shows,  community 


Beating  the  Devil  107 

music,  lectures,  and  neighborhood  meetings  ;  the  din- 
ing-room or  parish-house  for  neighborhood  dinners 
and  (sometimes)  for  social  dancing.  Specially 
equipped  institutional  churches  may  parallel  in 
equipment  and  service  the  best  of  social  settlements. 
Through  all  this  service  runs  the  idea  of  conserving 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  family  by  providing 
wholesome  activities  for  all  its  members. 

The  Roman  Catholic  church  also  is  becoming  in- 
terested in  recreation ;  and  while  it  never  uses  its 
church  building  for  other  than  religious  purposes, 
is  rapidly  developing  a  system  of  community  houses 
as  part  of  the  church  property. 

Other  church  activities  include  daily  vacation 
Bible  schools,  conducted  during  the  summer  vaca- 
tion period  with  singing,  Bible  lessons,  games,  and 
handicrafts ;  tours  to  beaches  and  parks ;  and  sum- 
mer camps  for  children  and  mothers  of  congested 
districts. 

Fresh-air  camps  for  mothers  and  children  from 
congested  districts  who  otherwise  would  get  no 
summer  outing  are  often  conducted  by  social  settle- 
ments, by  the  Salvation  Army  and  by  other  similar 
agencies,  or  independently. 

Playgrounds  and  Philanthropy 

Another  field  for  private  recreational  activity  is 
in  the  development  of  playgrounds.  While  play- 
grounds were  almost  all  originally  begun  by  private 
finance,  they  now  are  usually  under  public  finance 
and  control.  There  still  exists,  however,  in  many 
cities  the  opportunity  for  private  initiative  to  pur- 


108        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

chase  and  equip  playgrounds  in  neglected  districts 
and  present  them  to  the  community,  and  sometimes 
to  provide  supervision  of  these  playgrounds  or  extra 
supervision  for  under-manned  playgrounds. 

The  Community  Center  —  New  and  Popular 

Still  another  recreational  movement  which  may  be 
either  publicly  or  privately  financed,  or  financed  by 
joint  action,  is  the  community  center  or  neighbor- 
hood organization  movement,  which  strives  to  utilize 
all  the  resources  of  a  neighborhood  in  organizing  the 
leisure  time  of  the  people  on  a  cooperative  basis. 
The  center  of  such  a  movement  very  often  is  the 
public  school,  which  may  be  utilized  in  the  afternoon, 
after  school  hours,  for  the  recreation  of  the  children, 
and  in  the  evening  for  the  whole  community. 
Schools  may  be  especially  equipped  for  neighbor- 
hood work,  and  may  closely  approximate  the  services 
already  described  as  being  performed  by  settlements. 
So  far  as  possible,  these  neighborhood  associations 
are  self-governing  and  self-supporting.  They  tend 
to  develop  a  feeling  of  neighborliness  and  give  val- 
uable practice  in  democracy. 

Out  of  the  community  center  movement  has  de- 
veloped the  community  council  movement,  which 
strives  to  develop  a  voluntary  organization  repre- 
sentative of  a  whole  neighborhood  or  community, 
with  a  full  program  of  activities  for  all  the  people. 
These  community  councils  have  been  interestingly 
demonstrated  in  New  York  City  and  in  Chester,  Pa., 
where  particular  attention  has  been  paid  under  the 
direction  of  Community  Service,  Inc.,  to  the  assimi- 


Beating  the  Devil  109 


lation  of  foreign  groups  through  developing  their 
participation  in  community  life.  It  is  quite  likely 
that  in  the  city  of  the  future  this  type  of  community 
organization  will  make  the  development  of  new  set- 
tlements less  and  less  necessary. 

An  Alliance  to  Beat  the  Devil 

Such,  in  brief,  are  the  recreational  or  leisure-time 
activities  which  a  normal  American  city  may  be 
expected  to  have.  The  scheme  is  not  complete, 
however,  unless  some  method  is  devised  to  secure 
cooperation  between  all  these  activities  and  to  pro- 
mote construction  planning  to  meet  all  the  com- 
munity's recreational  needs.  Such  a  coordinating 
force  can  be  found  in  a  Playground  or  Recreation 
Association,  including  representation  from  all  the 
activities  concerned  in  leisure  time;  in  a  branch  of 
Community  Service,  Inc.,  (formerly  the  Playground 
and  Recreation  Association  of  America)  ;  in  a  Rec- 
reation Commission  appointed  by  public  authority ; 
or  in  a  recreation  committee  which  will  include  the 
representatives  of  all  recreational  activities  which 
belong  to  a  Council  of  Social  Agencies  as  described 
in  the  next  chapter.  A  body  of  this  sort,  in  addition 
to  planning  for  better  recreation,  might  very  well 
either  officially  or  unofficially  serve  as  a  censor  of 
commercial  amusements,  including  dance  halls,  mo- 
tion pictures  and  burlesque  shows,  and  poolrooms, 
seeing  that  the  laws  regulating  them  are  enforced, 
while  stimulating  the  better  types  of  commercial 
recreation. 

A  city  thus  equipped  by  thoughtful  givers  with 


no        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

voluntary  recreation  facilities,  with  the  community 
itself  providing  a  more  and  more  complete  system 
of  general  recreation  from  public  funds,  and  with 
close  cooperation  through  a  general  supervisory 
body,  should  have  little  trouble  in  breeding  better 
and  happier  citizens  and  in  beating  most  unmerci- 
fully that  devil  who  delights  in  finding  things  for 
idle  hands  to  do. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EFFECTIVE   GIFTS 

I  HAD  occasion  once  to  confer  with  a  group  of 
colored  women  regarding  the  financial  report  of 
the  "  charity  club  "  which  they  conducted.  An  item 
of  one  hundred  dollars  as  income  from  entertain- 
ment appeared  in  the  report. 

"  How  did  you  raise  that  one  hundred  dollars  ?  " 
I  asked. 

"Oh,  we  gave  a  charity  ball,"  replied  the  treas- 
urer. 

"How  much  were  the  expenses  of  the  ball?"  I 
inquired. 

"We  lost  money  on  it.  It  cost  us  one  hundred 
and  two  dollars,"  was  the  response. 

"  Why  do  you  conduct  charity  balls,  then,  if  you 
lose  money  on  them,  and  the  poor  don't  get  any 
of  the  money  that  is  given?"  I  asked  in  surprise. 

"  The  ladies  have  such  a  good  time,  they'd  rather 
lose  money  than  not  give  the  ball,"  was  the  naive 
reply. 

The  amiable  colored  women  had  transgressed  one 
of  the  prime  rights  of  the  contributor.  He  is  entitled 
to  know  that  his  gift  is  turned  into  human  service 
with  the  least  possible  expense  for  handling.  It  is 
to  be  feared,  also,  that  the  charity  club  had  trans- 
gressed the  other  prime  right  of  the  giver  —  the 

in 


ii2        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

right  to  know  that  his  gift  is  rendering  effective 
service. 

Charity  and  Business  Principles 

A  charitable  organization  should  be  run  on  pre- 
cisely the  same  principles  as  any  effective  business. 
This  does  not  mean  that  charity  need  be  hard  and 
cold  and  inhuman,  as  business  is  often  reputed  to 
be ;  but  that  the  same  methods  of  organization, 
administration,  and  salesmanship  which  have  made 
American  business  the  marvel  of  the  world,  also 
may  make  our  charity  render  better  service  to  the 
needy  and  to  the  community,  serve  more  people, 
make  the  money  given  go  farther  or  make  less  money 
necessary  for  a  given  service,  and  secure  more  con- 
tributors, more  permanent  contributors  and  more 
generous  contributors. 

For,  after  all,  looked  at  from  one  point  of  view,  a 
charitable  organization  is  no  more  nor  less  than  a 
business  organization.  It  is  made  up  of  a  group  of 
people,  associated  in  a  corporation ;  not,  indeed  for 
profit  to  themselves,  but  for  profit  and  advantage 
to  those  in  need  and  to  the  community.  It  produces 
a  definite  article,  such  as  mended  families,  healed 
invalids,  restored  eyesight,  trained  minds  and  bodies, 
more  efficient  workers,  better  Americans,  healthier 
children,  saved  lives.  This  product  should  have  a 
distinct  money  value  to  the  community  which  should 
be  represented  in  the  shape  of  contributions  of  people 
who  care  to  buy  this  product.  It  can  be  "  sold  "  to 
the  community  through  the  same  principles  of  ad- 


Effective  Gifts  113 


vertising  and   selling  as   are   employed   in    selling 
collars  or  breakfast  foods. 

Just  as  in  business  the  most  successful  corporation 
is  the  one  which  most  closely  follows  business  prin- 
ciples, so  in  charity  the  most  successful  organization 
in  rendering  service  and  in  securing  contributors  is 
the  one  which  follows  these  same  principles  —  for 
they  are  the  principles,  not  of  technical  service  in  a 
particular  field,  such  as  mining  or  bridge-building,  or 
medicine,  but  the  broad  principles  of  organization, 
control,  production,  and  marketing  which  hold  good 
for  all  organized  activity  which  employs  workers 
and  relies  on  the  public  for  its  support.  Business 
is  rapidly  adopting  these  principles.  Charity  has 
been  slower  to  adopt  such  methods ;  but  the  day  is 
coming  when  we  shall  demand  efficiency  in  the  man- 
agement of  our  charities  on  the  same  basis  as  we 
already  expect  it  in  business.  It  is  the  duty  of 
every  giver  to  require  such  efficiency  as  the  condi- 
tion of  his  gift ;  for  without  it,  the  fullest  effective- 
ness of  the  gift  cannot  be  realized. 

The  Principles  of  Charitable  Effectiveness 

The  principles  of  charitable  effectiveness  here  pre- 
sented are  the  twelve  advocated  by  the  industrial 
efficiency  expert,  Harrington  Emerson,1  adapted  to 
the  field  of  social  service,  and  supplemented  by  a  few 
additional  principles  necessary  to  an  effective  social 
organization. 

1.  A  Need  to  Be  Met. —  It  is  quite  clear  that  no 
1  Emerson  Harrington,  The  Twelve  Principles  of 
Efficiency,  Engineering  Magazine  Co.,  N.  Y. 


ii4        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

charitable  organization  has  any  excuse  for  existence 
if  it  is  not  meeting  a  specific  need.  Too  often  the 
organization  exists  after  the  need  has  disappeared  or 
to  meet  a  need  which  does  not  really  exist.  For 
example,  the  few  aged  colored  people  cared  for  by 
the  charity  club  described  at  the  beginning  of  the 
chapter  could  have  been  cared  for  much  better  and 
at  less  expense  by  the  Associated  Charities  which 
with  a  staff  of  trained  workers  covered  the  whole 
city.  The  need  for  the  creation  of  a  new  charity 
should  be  made  clear  by  a  statement  of  facts  which 
can  often  be  secured  through  surveys  conducted  by 
experts  from  such  organizations  as  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  or 
similar  authoritative  research  agencies.  Obviously, 
the  charity  should  not  come  into  existence  if  its  work 
can  be  done  equally  well  by  an  existing  organization  ; 
while  two  agencies  working  at  the  same  problem  in 
the  same  field  generally  should  consolidate  to  prevent 
unnecessary  "overhead"  and  duplicated  effort. 
Once  the  need  for  an  agency  is  established,  knowl- 
edge that  the  need  continues  to  exist  should  be  sup- 
plied by  periodical  re-study  of  the  situation.  The 
history  of  charities  which  have  outlived  their  use- 
fulness but  continue  because  interested  people  enjoy 
the  activity,  or  the  authority,  or  the  salaries,  is  a 
tragic  one  of  wasted  money  and  effort. 

2.  A  Clean-Cut  Ideal  or  Purpose. —  Not  only  must 
the  need  be  recognized,  but  a  definite  method  of 
meeting  it  must  be  in  mind.  Thus  an  Associated 
Charities  plans  not  merely  to  care  for  the  poor,  but 
to  care  for  them  and  to  eliminate  the  causes  that 


Effective  Gifts  115 


make  them  poor,  so  far  as  possible,  by  the  continu- 
ous efforts  of  intelligent,  trained  workers.  All  of  the 
activities  of  the  organization  should  be  contributory 
to  that  purpose. 

j.  Common  Sense. —  The  program  of  the  organi- 
zation must  be  practical.  Much  good  money  has 
been  wasted  in  vain  endeavors  by  impractical  theo- 
rists. The  successful  charity  must  be  based  on 
knowledge  of  facts,  with  sound  judgment  applied  to 
their  treatment.  That  is  one  reason  why  the  pres- 
ence of  business  men  on  the  boards  of  social  agencies 
is  desirable  and  why  training  is  so  important  for 
social  workers. 

4.  Competent  Counsel. —  The  successful  charity 
must  take  advantage  of  the  best  opinions  it  can  get 
anywhere.  Boards  of  social  agencies  should  be  will- 
ing to  send  their  paid  workers  to  such  meetings  as 
the  National  Conference  of  Social  Work  and  to  visit 
other  cities  where  they  may  study  the  most  success- 
ful methods  in  actual  operation.  Experts  should  be 
called  in  whenever  possible  to  advise  on  the  plans 
and  methods  of  the  organization.  Paid  and  volun- 
teer workers  should  be  encouraged  to  take  social- 
service  training  courses  in  their  spare  time.  Books 
and  magazines  on  charitable  subjects  should  be  made 
available.  Frequent  discussion  of  the  problems  of 
the  organization  and  of  the  community  should  be 
provided  through  such  bodies  as  local  social  workers' 
clubs  and  local  and  state  conferences  of  social 
workers. 

5.  Discipline. —  Within  the  organization,  lines  of 
responsibility  should  be  clearly  drawn,  and  members 


n6        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

of  the  staff  held  accountable  for  results.  Policies  of 
the  organization  should  be  well  known,  and  workers 
held  to  observance  of  them.  Execution  of  the  deci- 
sions of  the  governing  board  and  of  the  orders  of 
the  executive  should  be  prompt  and  thorough,  in 
contrast  with  the  slipshod  practices  of  many  social 
agencies,  which  seem  to  have  as  many  plans  and 
programs  as  there  are  workers  on  the  staff.  Such 
discipline  should  be  maintained,  however,  not  by  the 
fear  of  discharge  or  other  penalty,  but  by  the  devel- 
opment of  an  esprit  de  corps  which  can  be  aroused 
through  the  repeated  statement  of  the  ideals  of 
the  organization,  through  frequent  staff  meetings 
at  which  plans  are  thoroughly  discussed  by  the  exec- 
utive and  workers,  and  through  making  each  worker 
feel  that  he  has  a  part  in  a  task  in  which  all  are  co- 
workers and  in  which  the  elected  board  and  the 
executive  only  have  authority  because  of  greater 
training,  experience,  and  judgment. 

6.  The  Fair  Deal. —  In  charitable  organizations, 
certainly,  because  of  their  foundation  in  idealism, 
should  all  relations  be  based  on  the  fair  deal.  The 
workers  must  know  that  they  will  be  treated  fairly 
and  squarely  by  the  executive  and  his  board  and  not 
subjected  to  arbitrary  or  petty  rulings  or  to  partisan- 
ship or  favoritism.  Other  social  agencies  must  know 
that  the  agency  concerned  will  be  fair  in  its  coopera- 
tion with  them,  uninfluenced  by  personal  likes  or 
dislikes  or  by  "  pull."  The  clients  of  the  agency  must 
know  that  it  will  be  fair  with  them,  playing  no  favor- 
ites, giving  all  equal  treatment  and  the  best  that  can 
be  given,  kindly,   considerately,  and  thoughtfully. 


Effective  Gifts  117 


The  public  must  know  that  it  is  getting  a  fair  deal, 
that  it  is  being  told  all  the  truth  about  the  organiza- 
tions and  nothing  but  the  truth,  that  its  money  is 
being  spent  honestly  and  effectively,  and  that  its  in- 
terests are  being  served  wholeheartedly  and  with 
diligence. 

7.  Reliable,  Immediate,  and  Adequate  Records. — 
Those  who  sneer  at  the  "  red  tape  of  charity  "  and 
object  to  the  poor  being  asked  "  a  lot  of  unnecessary 
questions  "  show  their  ignorance  of  successful  busi- 
ness practice  and  of  essential  charitable  practice. 
Records  of  service  rendered  to  individuals  or  fami- 
lies and  of  the  social  facts  which  make  such  service 
necessary  are  indispensable  to  effective  social  service. 
Records  are  necessary  if  accurate  knowledge  is  to 
replace  guesswork  and  memory ;  if  continuous,  con- 
sistent treatment  of  those  who  are  "  socially  "  sick 
is  to  replace  haphazard  "  charity  "  which  often  is  as 
harmful  as  it  is  serviceable ;  if  effective  work  is  to 
be  done  over  a  period  of  years  with  a  changing  staff 
of  workers ;  if  the  poor  are  to  be  saved  from  the 
repetition  of  questions  by  a  succession  of  workers 
from  the  same  agency  or  from  different  agencies. 

Records  of  service  rendered  are  essential  to  the 
preparation  of  reports  showing  the  problems  faced 
by  the  organization  and  the  amount  of  service  ren- 
dered, and  to  that  interpretation  of  the  work  of  the 
organization  to  which  the  public  is  entitled. 

Records  must  be  kept  up  to  date,  legibly  written 
(preferably  typewritten),  kept  in  orderly  classifica- 
tion so  that  they  can  be  quickly  found  for  reference, 
and  be  uniform  for  the  single  organization  and  pref- 


n8        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

erably  uniform  for  as  many  organizations  as  possi- 
ble, so  that  figures  may  be  compared. 

Such  social  bookkeeping  must  be  matched  by  good 
financial  accounting  checked  by  annual  auditing  by 
an  outside,  disinterested  agency,  such  as  a  firm  of 
certified  public  accountants. 

Social  and  financial  records  should  be  combined 
to  show  the  cost  of  service,  in  such  terms  as  expense 
per  patient  per  day  for  a  hospital,  cost  per  visit  for 
a  public-health  nursing  association,  and  so  on ;  and 
these  figures  should  be  prepared  on  a  uniform  basis, 
so  that  costs  for  all  similar  organizations  may  be 
compared. 

8.  Standards  and  Schedules. —  From  the  records 
of  service  and  of  service  cost  thus  compiled,  stand- 
ards of  performance  and  schedules  for  working  on 
these  standards  should  be  compiled.  Nurses  and 
family  social  workers  should  be  expected  to  make 
a  certain  minimum  number  of  visits  a  day  and  to 
care  for  a  certain  minimum  number  of  clients.  At 
the  same  time,  standards  should  be  set  as  to  limits 
above  which  the  worker  cannot  go  without  destroy- 
ing the  effectiveness  of  his  service. 

0.  Dispatching. —  Standards  and  schedules  should 
be  enforced  by  the  superintendent  or  director  of  the 
organization,  who  should  see  that  everything  needful 
in  the  way  of  supplies  and  equipment  is  available 
when  required  and  that  the  activities  of  all  workers 
are  carefully  "  dovetailed,"  so  that  there  is  no  lost 
time  or  effort. 

10.  Standardized  Conditions. —  Offices  of  charit- 
able organizations  should  be  laid  out  and  equipped 


Effective  Gifts  119 


for  the  greatest  comfort  and  convenience  of  the 
workers,  with  adequate  lighting,  ventilation,  and 
toilet  facilities.  Institutions  should  be  similarly 
planned  for  the  comfort  and  safety  of  their  inmates, 
with  regard  to  the  varied  needs  of  old  and  young 
and  those  suffering  from  special  infirmities. 

11.  Standardised  Operations. —  All  routine  work 
of  a  charitable  organization  should  be  standardized 
and  reduced  so  far  as  possible  to  habit.  Thus, 
records  should  all  be  prepared  in  the  same  way  by 
family  workers;  bandages  wound  in  the  same  way 
by  nurses.  This  does  not  mean  that  social  service 
itself  should  be  done  mechanically ;  but  that  in  order 
to  free  themselves  for  constructive  social  work,  all 
workers  should  be  shown  the  easiest,  quickest,  and 
best  ways  to  do  those  things  which  may  be  stand- 
ardized, and  then  expected  to  use  these  methods  until 
better  methods  are  developed,  when  they,  in  turn 
should  be  made  the  standard.  Thus,  family  visitors 
and  public-health  nurses  sometimes  found  formerly 
that  they  could  make  their  calls  more  quickly  and 
easily  by  riding  a  bicycle  than  in  walking  or  taking 
the  street  car.  Now,  in  sparsely  settled  districts, 
such  workers  are  being  provided  with  automobiles, 
and  it  is  quite  likely  that  in  many  neighborhoods  it 
will  be  found  that  a  nurse  with  a  "  flivver  "  can  do 
more  work  than  two  nurses  traveling  on  foot  or  by 
street  car,  and  at  less  than  the  double  salary  expense. 

12.  Written  Standard  Practice  Instructions. — 
Once  standards  and  schedules  are  set,  they  should 
be  made  permanent  by  putting  them  in  writing.  This 
is  necessary  for  uniformity  and  continuity  of  policy, 


120        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 


for  the  instruction  of  new  workers,  and  for  certainty 
in  treatment  of  clients  and  in  cooperation  with  other 
agencies.  One  of  the  best  examples  of  written  stand- 
ard practice  instructions  is  given  by  the  American 
Red  Cross,  which,  early  in  the  course  of  the  tremen- 
dous expansion  occasioned  by  the  World  War,  issued 
manuals  of  elementary  practice  for  its  different  de- 
partments, as,  for  example,  the  Home  Service  Sec- 
tion, and  then  followed  up  these  manuals  by  instruc- 
tions and  statements  of  policy  printed  on  perforated 
sheets  which  fitted  into  loose-leaf  books.  In  this 
way  the  activities  of  an  organization  with  thousands 
of  workers  were  kept  remarkably  uniform  and 
effective  throughout  the  country  and  even  overseas. 
i 5.  Efficiency  Reward. —  No  organization  can  be 
kept  at  a  high  pitch  of  efficiency  unless  some  reward 
is  before  its  workers  for  following  the  principles 
heretofore  stated. 

A  benighted  public  seems  to  have  had  the  idea  in 
rears  past  that  in  charitable  work  the  consciousness 
of  doing  good  should  be  the  reward  of  service.  It 
was  felt  that  paid  workers  should  work  for  long 
hours,  at  salaries  which  barely  covered  the  cost  of 
existence,  under  miserable  conditions,  because  they 
were  working  for  charity.  Somewhat  the  same  idea 
is  largely  responsible  for  the  low  state  in  which  the 
Protestant  ministry  now  finds  itself  in  many  places ; 
and  was  responsible  certainly  for  the  fact  that  during 
a  large  part  of  the  last  century  charitable  organiza- 
tions were  run  by  broken-down  preachers,  poor  rela- 
tives, business  men  who  had  failed  in  everything  else 
but  were  thought  to  be  "  good,"  elderly  spinsters  who 


Effective  Gifts  121 


had  gotten  tired  of  teaching  school,  and  melancholy 
widows  of  good  connection  who  were  supposed  to 
know  how  to  raise  children. 

Now,  however,  it  is  being  seen  more  and  more 
clearly  that  effective  social  service  requires  the  same 
order  of  ability  and  training  that  is  required  in 
effective  business ;  and  that  to  get  such  ability,  cur- 
rent business  rates  must  be  paid  for  it.  Social  service 
is  so  exacting  in  its  responsibilities,  so  incessant  in  its 
demands  upon  the  time  and  thought  of  those  who  are 
earnestly  engaged  in  it,  that  they  are  entitled  at  least 
to  a  comfortable  living  wage,  equal  to  what  they 
could  have  earned  by  the  same  effort  in  ordinary 
business. 

At  present,  the  greatest  diversity  exists  in  social 
workers'  salaries.  One  of  the  services  which  is  be- 
ing rendered  by  national  organizations  such  as  the 
American  Red  Cross  and  the  National  Organization 
for  Public  Health  Nursing  and  by  local  federations 
such  as  the  Cleveland  Community  Fund  is  the  stand- 
ardization of  salaries  at  reasonable  rates  for  corre- 
sponding grades  of  responsibility,  training,  and 
experience. 

Workers  are  entitled  to  regular  raises  in  pay,  as 
their  usefulness  to  the  organization  and  their  length 
of  service  increase ;  and  to  the  first  chance  at  pro- 
motion to  vacancies  which  they  are  qualified  to  fill 
within  their  organizations,  rather  than  seeing  these 
vacancies  filled  by  outsiders. 

Social  workers  are  entitled  to  vacations,  not  as  a 
reward  for  service  rendered,  but  as  a  preparation  for 
work  to  come ;  and  because  of  the  strenuous  and  tax- 


122        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

ing  nature  of  social  work,  vacations  of  a  month 
rather  than  of  the  conventional  two  weeks  are  often 
justified  in  better  service.  Similarly,  some  progress- 
ive organizations  follow  the  example  of  colleges,  and 
give  their  workers  one  year  in  seven  as  a  sabbatical 
year  for  study  and  research. 

Workers  should  be  allowed  a  reasonable  amount 
of  sick-leave  with  pay ;  and  some  progressive  agen- 
cies are  working  on  plans  for  sickness-insurance  for 
their  workers. 

Pensions  for  workers  grown  old  in  service  have 
not  yet  been  provided,  so  far  as  is  known,  possibly 
because  social  service  as  a  profession  is  so  new ;  but 
pensions  should  surely  be  provided  in  the  future. 

A  charity  with  such  efficiency  rewards  as  these 
for  its  workers  will  find  them  amply  justified  in  more 
effective  and  cheerful  service,  and  in  permanency 
of  its  staff. 

14.  Responsible  Management. —  Every  charity 
should  be  incorporated  under  the  laws  of  its  state. 
The  legal  code  of  every  state  provides  for  associa- 
tions for  educational,  charitable,  and  religious  pur- 
poses, not  for  profit,  and  with  the  incorporators  not 
liable  for  financial  obligations  of  the  organization. 

The  corporation  should  be  managed  by  a  respon- 
sible board,  which  meets  at  least  once  a  month.  The 
board  must  be  made  up  of  members  who  are  really 
active  and  not  of  people  who  merely  lend  their  names 
for  the  sake  of  the  effect  on  the  organization's  letter- 
head. Too  many  charitable  boards  are  mere  figure- 
heads. 

The  board  of  directors  should  be  democratically 


Effective  Gifts  123 


elected  by  the  contributors,  and  should  not  be  a  self- 
perpetuating  body  responsible  to  no  one,  as  far  too 
often  is  the  case.  Where  possible,  as  sometimes  in 
social  settlements  and  community  centers,  the  actual 
clients  or  users  of  the  organization  should  either 
elect  supplementary  boards  which  advise  the  board 
of  directors,  or  elect  a  specified  number  of  the  direc- 
tors. Such  a  plan  is  excellent,  both  because  it  con- 
veys to  the  group  representing  contributors  an  idea 
of  the  needs  and  desires  of  the  clients  and  also 
because  it  helps  give  the  clients  or  users  a  knowledge 
of  the  policies  of  the  organization  and  a  feeling  of 
responsibility  for  its  successful  activity. 

15.  Responsible  Executive. —  The  successful  char- 
itable organization  must  have  a  competent  executive, 
fully  responsible  for  the  activities  of  the  organiza- 
tion. He  must  be  free  from  the  interference  of 
board  members  in  the  work  of  the  organiza- 
tion. He  must  have  the  privilege  of  attendance  and 
participation  in  the  discussion  at  meetings  of  the 
board  and  of  its  committees,  unlike  the  practice  in 
some  antiquated  organizations  which  debate  all 
measures  by  themselves  and  then  call  in  the  execu- 
tive to  tell  him  what  it  has  been  decided  he  shall  do. 
He  must  be  free  to  engage,  discipline,  and  discharge 
all  his  subordinates.  He  must  have  a  staff  and  equip- 
ment adequate  to  discharge  the  work  of  the  organi- 
zation, and  to  leave  him  time  for  planning. 

Selling  Charity 

A  charity  organized  on  the  foregoing  principles 
will  inevitably  get  good  results.     It  will  produce  a 


124        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

high-grade  article  of  social  service  at  low  cost  for 
each  unit  of  service.  Just,  however,  as  a  factory 
has  not  finished  its  job  when  it  has  made  an  auto- 
mobile, but  must  proceed  to  create  a  desire  for  it 
in  the  mind  of  the  public  and  then  to  sell  it ;  so,  also, 
must  modern  charity  conduct  a  campaign  of  adver- 
tising and  selling  on  the  principles  of  successful 
business. 

Cut  Out  Wasteful  Financial  Schemes 

It  is  obvious  that  wasteful  and  extravagant  meth- 
ods of  collecting  and  distributing  funds  should  be 
eliminated.  Charity  balls  and  entertainments  which 
exact  as  much  as  sixty  per  cent  or  even  more  of 
the  proceeds  are  a  clear  injustice  to  the  contributor. 
Moreover,  such  devices  are  uneducational,  leaving 
the  giver  no  wiser  than  before  as  to  the  real  nature 
of  the  work  his  money  is  doing,  and  hence  necessi- 
tate the  same  work  of  finance  year  after  year,  instead 
of  building  up  the  interest  of  the  giver  so  that  his 
gift  eventually  comes  without  solicitation.  The  use 
of  commissioned  solicitors,  who  often  get  thirty- 
three  per  cent  or  more  of  their  collections  (these 
solicitors  often  are  beautiful  young  women  who  get 
gifts  more  on  the  basis  of  their  charms  than  of  the 
charitable  causes  they  represent)  also  is  inexcusable. 

Money  Can  Be  Raised  at  Low  Cost 

Charitable  agencies  ail  over  the  country  are 
financed  adequately  and  economically  by  the  efforts 
of  executives,  skilled  in  money-raising  or  publicity, 
who  give  part  time  to  this  work,  or  of  full-time 


Effective  Gifts  \2\ 


finance  and  publicity  workers  on  salaries.  Fre- 
quently, these  workers  are  backed  up  by  the  efforts 
of  board  members. 

In  many  cities,  the  principles  of  successful  sales 
management  are  applied  to  the  organization  of  com- 
munity-wide campaigns  for  contributions,  in  which 
volunteer  workers  are  assigned  to  specific  territories. 
Quotas  for  contributions  are  sent  each  group  of 
workers.  A  keen  competition  is  aroused  between 
groups  by  the  publication  of  their  results.  Such 
campaigns  may  be  for  a  day,  a  week,  or  longer. 

A  recent  development  of  the  campaign  idea  is 
found  in  the  creation  of  a  permanent  organization. 
The  workers  are  assigned  the  same  territory  each 
year.  They  gradually  become  familiar  with  the 
givers  in  the  territory  and  take  a  pride  in  improving 
the  results  secured  each  year  from  the  individual 
givers  and  from  the  territory  as  a  whole.  This 
organization  in  the  meantime  serves  as  a  medium 
for  popular  education  on  the  work  of  the  organiza- 
tion and  also  for  referring  needy  persons  to  the 
appropriate  charities. 

Such  a  combination  of  the  idea  of  volunteer  serv- 
ice with  that  of  a  permanent  "selling"  organization 
reaches  its  highest  development  in  cities  where 
"  community  chests  "  include  most  of  the  city's  chari- 
ties and  make  one  carefully  budgeted  annual  drive 
for  funds.  A  financial  campaign  conducted  on  these 
lines  can  reduce  the  cost  of  raising  and  collecting 
funds  to  extremely  low  figures  and  can  secure 
remarkably  large  numbers  of  givers  and  amounts 
of  gifts. 


126        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

There  is  no  doubt,  then,  that  charities  can  be 
financed  adequately  on  a  basis  running  from  fifteen 
per  cent  or  less  for  the  single  agency  with  a  finan- 
cial secretary  and  a  campaign  of  letters  and  personal 
calls,  down  to  two  or  three  per  cent  or  less  for  the 
big  community  chest  campaigns.  Such  figures  are 
much  lower  than  the  selling  costs  of  most  busi- 
nesses. Every  contributor  ought  to  require  an  au- 
dited report  showing  that  his  gift  has  been  handled 
in  such  economical  fashion. 

Publicity  for  Charity 

Further,  every  giver  is  entitled  to  know  what  the 
results  of  his  gift,  in  human  service,  have  been. 
The  charity  which  he  has  aided  should  make,  at 
least  annually,  to  all  givers,  a  clear  and  compre- 
hensive report.  The  interest  of  the  giver  will  be 
greatly  increased  by  photographs,  charts,  stories  of 
actual  "  cases "  where  the  organization  has  been 
most  helpful,  and  by  good,  clear  typography  and 
attractive  paper  in  the  report.  A  charitable  organi- 
zation which  will  use  the  opportunities  for  free 
publicity  offered  by  the  newspapers,  which  will  back 
up  this  publicity  by  paid  newspaper  advertising  when 
necessary,  by  attractive  printed  matter  mailed  to 
givers  and  prospective  givers,  by  lantern  slides  and 
films  in  the  motion-picture  theaters,  and  by  illus- 
trated talks  in  churches  and  before  clubs  and  other 
organizations,  will  find  this  business-like  educational 
program  more  than  repaid  by  new  contributors,  in- 
creased   support   and   prompt   renewal  by  present 


Effective  Gifts  127 


contributors,  and  by  cooperation  of  the  general  pub- 
lic in  its  plans  for  improvement  of  social  conditions. 

Eliminating  Duplicated  Effort 

The  giver  is  entitled  still  further  to  the  assurance 
that  his  gift  has  been  expended  without  duplicating 
other  effort.  Such  assurance  is  given  by  use  of  the 
Social  Service  Exchange,  which  is  a  card  index  of 
the  names  and  addresses  of  all  clients  of  the  co- 
operating agencies.  It  is  confidential,  and  even  if  it 
were  not,  could  yield  no  information  other  than 
the  name  and  address  of  the  family  and  the  names 
of  the  agencies  interested  in  it.  Agencies  inquir- 
ing of  families  in  the  exchanges  are  given  the 
names  of  other  agencies  already  interested  from 
whom  details  can  be  secured ;  and,  immediately,  the 
agencies  previously  interested  are  informed  of  the 
inquiry  by  the  new  agency.  By  use  of  this  exchange 
repeated  questioning  of  families  for  facts  already 
known  to  some  agency  is  prevented,  duplicated  effort 
is  minimized,  and  teamwork  in  treatment  is  pro- 
moted. No  adequate  excuse  can  be  offered  by  any 
agency  giving  "  material  relief "  or  doing  "  case 
work"  for  not  using  the  Social  Service  Exchange. 
Givers  should  insist  on  it  as  a  requisite  of  efficient 
service. 

Supervision  for  Efficiency 

The  average  contributor  to  charity  is  not  in  a 
position  to  know  accurately  the  value  of  the  service 
rendered  by  the  organizations  which  solicit  his  sup- 
port.   Some  extremely  well-to-do  and  conscientious 


128        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

givers  employ  charitable  secretaries,  who  weigh  the 
merits  and  study  the  methods  of  those  who  ask  the 
bounty  of  their  employers.  This  same  service  is 
provided  for  the  average  contributor  by  the  charities 
endorsement  committees  of  chambers  of  commerce, 
which  issue  to  members  of  their  organizations  lists 
of  agencies  endorsed  as  meeting  reasonable  quali- 
fications of  business-like  management  and  social 
usefulness. 

A  service  in  the  field  of  state  and  national  chari- 
ties similar  to  that  provided  in  the  field  of  local 
charity  by  charities  endorsement  committees  is  sup- 
plied by  the  National  Information  Bureau,  with 
headquarters  in  New  York  City.  It  issues  lists  of 
endorsed  agencies  and  furnishes  special  reports  in 
individual  projects.  It  is  proving  of  the  greatest 
value  in  suppressing  "  fly-by-night "  solicitation 
schemes  which  otherwise  would  have  ensnared  many 
unsuspecting  givers. 

In  addition  to  these  types  of  voluntary  stimula- 
tion of  efficiency,  government  may  step  in  and  estab- 
lish certain  standards  of  service.  A  number  of  cities 
have  public  welfare  departments,  which,  in  addition 
to  administering  the  public  charities  and  welfare 
activities  of  the  municipality,  also  issue  licenses  to 
properly  conducted  private  charities.  Many  states, 
further,  maintain  state  boards  of  charities ;  which, 
in  addition  to  either  administering  or  supervising 
state  institutions,  issue  licenses  to  private  agencies, 
chiefly  in  the  field  of  child-care. 

An  interesting  development  of  the  idea  of  public 
supervision  is  seen  in  the  Indianapolis  Community 


Effective  Gifts  129 


Welfare  Board  which  may  "manage  and  control 
any  unconditional  gift,  devise,  or  bequest  to  the 
city  not  made  for  any  specific  purpose  and  also  any 
gift,  devise,  or  bequest  to  the  city  for  community 
welfare  purposes ;  and  may  apply  any  fund  subject 
to  its  administration  to  any  enterprise  which  may 
involve  the  health,  education,  safety,  pleasure,  com- 
fort, welfare  or  convenience  of  or  benefit  to  the 
citizens  of  the  city." 

Safeguarding  Charitable  Bequests 

This  plan  suggests  the  whole  question  of  safe- 
guarding bequests  for  philanthropic  purposes.  Since 
the  early  Christian  era,  charitable  people  have  left, 
by  will,  funds  to  endow  benevolent  causes ;  and  ever 
since  that  time,  difficulty  has  been  found  in  making 
the  terms  of  bequest  fit  changing  conditions  of  life. 
Of  recent  years,  wealthy  men,  such  as  Russell  Sage 
and  Andrew  Carnegie  have  established  foundations, 
under  boards  of  trustees,  which  may  administer  in 
perpetuity  for  the  benefit  of  humanity  the  funds  at 
their  disposal.  In  order  to  make  possible  this  same 
flexibility  in  administering  endowments  for  chari- 
table causes,  "  community  foundations  "  have  been 
established  in  a  score  or  more  of  American  cities, 
by  trust  companies  or  groups  of  trust  companies, 
which  serve  as  the  repositories  for  funds,  the  income 
of  which  is  expended  for  current  charitable  needs  as 
determined  by  a  permanent  "  foundation  board." 
Perhaps  the  most  distinguished  example  is  the  Cleve- 
land Foundation,  which  in  addition  to  receiving 
bequests  of  large  amounts,  has  conducted  a  number 


130        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

of  valuable  community  surveys  both  to  ascertain 
how  best  to  expend  its  funds  and  also  to  make  avail- 
able to  the  whole  community  facts  as  to  social 
conditions  and  needs.  The  foundation  plan  makes 
it  possible  for  the  average  citizen  to  die  with  the 
pleasing  knowledge  that  his  influence  will  live  on 
through  the  effective  service  of  his  bequest,  large 
or  small. 

'  Teamwork  Essential  to  Effective  Service 

Safeguards,  however  elaborate,  will  not  give  the 
fullest  value  to  a  gift.  Its  most  complete  effective- 
ness will  only  come  when  it  is  made  a  potent  factor 
for  good  by  the  cooperation  of  all  charities  and 
social  agencies,  public  or  private.  It  has  been 
shown  that  the  fields  of  social  service  are  not  sepa- 
rate areas,  but  that  they  overlap.  One  family  may 
require  assistance  on  account  of  family  troubles, 
child- welfare  difficulties,  ill  health,  poor  mentality, 
and  inadequate  recreation.  Poverty,  disease,  igno- 
rance, vice,  and  crime  go  hand  in  hand.  The  prob- 
lems they  bring  about  are  so  various,  and  the  amount 
of  work  to  be  done  in  comparison  with  the  funds 
and  workers  available  are  so  great,  that  only  if 
charitable  agencies  also  go  hand  in  hand,  can  any 
headway  be  made.  Teamwork  in  human  service, 
consultation  and  conference  on  the  problems  of 
service,  mutual  endeavor  to  raise  the  standards  of 
service  are  as  essential  to  effective  expenditure  of 
gifts,  as  are  economy  and  freedom  from  waste.  No 
charity  can  stand  alone  these  days. 

A  beginning  of  cooperation  is  provided  by  the 


Effective  Gifts  131 


Social  Service  Exchange  already  mentioned;  but  a 
cooperation  limited  practically  to  individual  cases. 
Present-day  cooperation  must  be  broader  than  that. 
It  must  rest  on  mutual  knowledge  of  community 
problems,  mutual  agreement  as  to  what  action  shall 
be  taken  on  these  problems,  and  mutual  action  in 
executing  these  problems.  Such  teamwork  is  being 
provided  by  the  so-called  "  councils  of  social  agen- 
cies "  which  have  developed  so  rapidly  within  the 
past  decade  that  now  practically  no  city  of  any  size 
and  possessed  of  a  dozen  or  more  social  agencies 
feels  itself  complete  without  one. 

"  City  Planning  in  Flesh  and  Blood  " 

The  council  is  essentially  a  clearing-house  for  all 
of  a  city's  activities,  public  or  private,  in  any  way 
concerned  with  the  public  welfare.  It  may  include 
charities,  endowed  institutions,  city  departments, 
public-school  systems,  civic  and  labor  organizations, 
federations  of  churches,  or  any  other  group  con- 
cerned in  community  betterment.  It  serves  as  a 
sort  of  board  for  "  city  planning  in  flesh  and  blood." 
A  great  variety  of  committees  may  be  organized,  on 
such  subjects  as  child  welfare,  family  welfare, 
health,  recreation,  mental  hygiene,  central  purchas- 
ing, Social  Service  Exchange,  and  so  on  through 
many  functions,  any  one  of  which  any  group  of 
agencies  may  wish  to  perform  in  common.  Each 
committee  brings  together  the  representatives  of 
all  the  agencies  interested  in  the  problem,  for 
common  discussion  and  action.  In  general,  these 
committees  are  purely  advisory,  and  do  not  attempt 


132        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 


to  render  any  actual  social  service.  Their  task  is  to 
get  things  done,  chiefly  through  directing  to  the 
problem  the  activities  of  existing  agencies.  Some- 
times, however,  services  of  mutual  advantage  are 
undertaken,  as  in  central  purchasing.  The  advan- 
tages of  cooperation  in  studying  the  city's  needs  and 
in  seeing  that  every  phase  of  every  welfare  problem 
is  met  in  the  best  possible  way  are  obvious.  The 
power  of  a  gift  is  magnified  by  teamwork. 

Joint  Money-Raising  Desirable 
In  many  of  the  cities  where  these  councils  exist, 
most  or  all  of  the  charities  which  must  raise  funds 
by  contributions  have  combined  in  a  unified  financial 
campaign. 

The  advantages  of  such  a  method  of  finance  are 
obvious  —  reduction  of  cost  of  raising  funds;  saving 
in  time  of  volunteer  solicitors  for  funds;  relief  of 
the  giver  from  repeated  solicitation  ;  standardization 
of  bookkeeping  methods  and  consequent  improve- 
ment in  business  methods  of  the  cooperating  chari- 
ties ;  evening  up  finances  of  the  charities,  so  that  all 
have  enough  to  do  their  work  properly  and  none 
have  unused  balances  lying  idle ;  planning  of  social 
work  on  a  careful  budgetary  basis,  related  to  the 
social  needs  of  the  community ;  opportunity  for  the 
giver  to  put  his  own  giving  on  a  similarly  careful 
budgetary  basis  and  to  plan  at  one  time  all  his  giving 
for  the  whole  year ;  and  release  of  charitable  boards 
from  continued  money-grubbing  so  that  they  can 
do  real  social  service. 

The  interest  of  the  giver  is  not  diminished  by 


Effective  Gifts  133 


interposing  this  new  financial  agency,  for  he  may 
designate  on  the  subscription  card  any  agency  which 
he  wishes  to  receive  any  part  of  his  gift;  while, 
usually,  a  carefully  planned,  year-round  publicity 
program  made  possible  by  the  centralization  of 
finance  and  publicity  keeps  him  closer  in  touch  than 
ever  before  with  the  service  his  gift  is  rendering. 

More  givers,  larger  gifts,  more  effective  gifts,  and 
happier  givers  are  reported  to  be  the  practically 
unanimous  experience  of  the  communities  which 
work  out  properly  the  plant  of  unifying  all  appeals 
for  funds.  The  table  below  indicates  the  financial 
success  of  the  "  Community  Chest "  plan  in  a  few 
cities.  Under  this  plan  the  difficulties  of  the  giver 
seem  to  be  removed  so  far  as  is  possible,  and  his 
pleasure  in  constructive  charity  to  be  raised  to  the 
highest  degree. 

Popula-         1920     Am' t  per 
City  Organization  tion  Budget     Capita 

Saginaw,   Mich... Welfare    League 65,000    $   428,617.20    $6.59 

Cincinnati,     O. ...  Community     Chest 401,158      2,100,000.00      5.23 

Cleveland,    O Welfare     Federation.. .  .796,836      4,000,000.00      5.02 

Detroit,    Mich. ...  Community    Union 993,739      4,000,000.00      4.03 

Rochester,  N.  Y..  Patriotic      and      Com- 
munity   Fund 395,000      1,163,272.52      3.94 

Plainfield    and   N. 

Plainfield,  N.  J. Community    Chest 35,000         133,900.00      3.83 

Rome,   N.   Y Community    Chest 24,000  88,847.75      3.70 

Minneapolis, 

Minn Council      of      Social 

Agencies     380,498      1,251,566.00      3.27 

Orange,  East  Or- 
ange.     South 

Orange,      West 

Orange     and 

Maplewood,     N. 

J. Welfare     Federation. ..  .105,000         340,342.00      3.24 

Youngstown,   O..  Community        Corpora- 
tion  125,000        400,000.00      3.20 

Erie.    Pa Community    Chest 102,093         319,667.44      3.13 

Dayton,   O Community    Chest 153,000        450,000.00      2.22 

Toledo,  O Community    Chest 243,000        500,000.00      2.06 


134        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

The  principles  given  in  this  chapter  for  the  effi- 
cient organization,  management,  and  "marketing" 
of  a  charity,  and  for  the  cooperation  of  charities  for 
efficiently  serving  their  mutual  requirements  and  the 
community's  needs,  show  that  gifts  can  be  given  an 
effectiveness  which  was  not  even  suspected  until 
recent  years.  Charity  can  be  run  on  the  business 
basis  of  the  most  effective  corporation ;  and  by  virtue 
of  the  freedom  made  possible  by  this  very  fact,  can 
be  made,  still,  to  have  all  the  sympathy,  all  the 
love,  all  the  kindliness,  all  the  insight,  all  the  flexi- 
bility of  the  most  perfect  individual.  "  Efficiency," 
says  Harrington  Emerson,  "  is  the  easiest,  quickest, 
and  best  way  to  the  most  desirable  things  of  life ; 
and  is  not  that  what  the  giver  wants  in  his  charity  ?  " 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  WIDOW'S   MITE 


IN  a  recent  campaign  for  charitable  funds  the 
card  of  a  well-to-do  woman  "prospect"  was 
returned  without  a  subscription,  but  with  this  pen- 
ciled comment  by  the  volunteer  solicitor  who  had 
tried  to  secure  a  gift,  "  Said  she  couldn't  give  a  cent ; 
but  I  know  she  has  three  maids,  a  butler,  and  two 
motor  cars." 

About  the  same  time,  I  accompanied  two  of  our 
most  effective  volunteer  solicitors,  regular  "wheel 
horses"  noted  for  their  success  in  wringing  gifts 
from  reluctant  contributors,  in  a  call  on  a  gentleman 
who  had  never  been  known  to  contribute  to  any 
cause,  either  in  connection  with  his  business  associa- 
tion or  with  charity.  "  No,  I  can't  give  you  a  cent," 
he  said  evasively,  "  I've  already  given  away  seven- 
teen and  one-quarter  per  cent  of  my  income  —  more 
than  my  income  tax  allows.  I've  given  it  all  direct, 
but  I've  given  it."  Nothing  that  my  companions  or 
I  could  say  could  budge  him.  "  Well,"  they  said  as 
they  departed,  "we  didn't  do  any  worse  than  we 
expected.  He  never  gave  anything  to  any  cause  that 
we  ever  heard  of." 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  known  people  who  gave 
far  out  of  proportion  to  what  others  of  the  same 
income  were  giving;  and  I  have  known  one  of  our 

i35 


136        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

most  effective  volunteer  workers  to  advise  a  gen- 
erous woman  giver  not  to  subscribe  as  much  as  she 
offered  to,  because  he  did  not  think  she  could 
afford  it. 

In  general,  I  should  say,  the  average  citizen  is 
generous,  and  wants  to  give  his  full  share  to  the 
charities  which  have  a  just  claim  on  him.  What, 
however,  this  full  and  fair  share  may  be  is  often  a 
difficult  question  to  answer ;  and  lists  of  givers  reveal 
the  greatest  disparity  between  the  opinions  of  various 
citizens. 

"Hozv  Much  Shall  I  Give?" 

The  question  of  how  much  to  give  has  long  been 
of  concern  to  the  charitable.  The  ancient  Jews 
devised  a  tithing  system,  the  giving  of  a  tenth  of 
one's  income  to  church  and  charity.  St.  Augustine 
directed  the  faithful  "to  give  one's  superfluity  to 
him  that  hath  need ;  to  give  of  one's  temporal  abun- 
dance to  deliver  his  brother  from  temporal  tribula- 
tion." "What  am  I  bound  to  give?"  inquired  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas ;  and  he  answered  himself,  thus, 
"  My  superfluity."  A  more  modern  idea  was  ex- 
pressed in  the  slogan  used  during  the  war  charity 
campaigns  — "  Give  until  it  hurts."  A  still  more 
recent  development  is  the  attempt  made  by  the  Inter- 
church  World  Movement  and  the  various  denomina- 
tional campaigns  which  have  been  associated  in  it, 
to  create  "  Christian  Stewards "  who  will  give  at 
least  one-tenth  of  their  income  to  the  church,  regard- 
less of  any  other  gifts  they  may  make  to  unsectarian 
causes.    None  of  these  slogans  or  catch-words,  how- 


The  Widow's  Mite  137 


ever,  indicates  very  closely  what  the  average  citizen 
should  give  to  all  charitable  causes. 

Modern  Giving  on  a  Wholesale  Scale 

More  adequate  evidence  as  to  the  citizen's  respon- 
sibility for  giving  is  found  in  the  experience  of 
various  American  cities  which  since  the  World  War 
have  established  so-called  "  Community  Chests " 
that  include  all  charitable  appeals,  whether  for  local, 
state,  national  or  international  purposes.  The  re- 
sults of  some  of  these  campaigns  for  the  budgets  of 
the  year  1920  were  given  at  the  end  of  the  last 
chapter. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  many  people  in  these  cities 
do  not  give  at  all.  For  example,  Cleveland's  Com- 
munity Chest  campaign  for  1920  secured  150,000 
givers;  Cincinnati's,  50,000.  A  large  number  of 
these  contributors  gave  small  amounts  only.  Obvi- 
ously, other  givers  must  contribute  larger  amounts 
to  make  up  the  difference  and  must  give,  not  merely 
in  proportion  to  their  incomes,  but  in  proportion  to 
their  surpluses  over  the  mere  expenses  of  living. 
In  some  of  these  big  community  campaigns,  gifts  of 
$50,000,  $100,000,  and  more  are  not  unknown.  The 
most  well-to-do  must  bear  the  heaviest  portion  of 
the  burden ;  but  everyone  who  can  give  at  all  should 
give  in  proportion  to  his  ability. 

Giving  as  "  One  of  a  Group  " 

A  successful  method  of  scaling  gifts  is  the  "one- 
of-a-group"  method,  whereby  the  giver  decides  to 
become  one  of  a  group  of  givers  of  a  certain  amount. 


138        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 


For  example,  if  a  city  has  one  man  who  can  afford 
to  give  $100,000,  it  ought  to  have  two  men  who  each 
can  give  half  as  much,  five  who  can  give  a  fifth  as 
much,  and  so  on,  after  this  fashion: 


Size  of  Gift 

Number  in  Group 

Total  for  Group 

$100,000 

1 

$100,000 

50,000 

2 

100,000 

25,000 

4 

100,000 

10,000 

10 

100,000 

5,000 

20 

100,000 

2,500 

40 

100,000 

1,000 

100 

100,000 

500 

200 

100,000 

250 

400 

100,000 

100 

1,000 

100,000 

50 

2,000 

100,000 

25 

4,000 

100,000 

10 

10,000 

100,000 

5 

20,000 

100,000 

2 

50,000 

100,000 

1 

100,000 

100,000 

Totals     187,777  $1,600,000 

This  plan  cannot  of  course  be  exactly  followed, 
but  with  it  as  a  guide,  givers  can  place  themselves  in 
the  groups  in  which  they  belong. 

Shall  Gifts  Be  Published? 

With  this  one-of-a-group  plan,  which  has  the 
further  advantage  of  giving  a  contributor  a  certain 
pride  of  place,  would  necessarily  go  at  least  in  part, 
the  policy  of  publishing  the  names  and  amounts  of 
subscriptions.  Some  objection  has  been  raised  to 
such  publication,  on  the  score  that  the  left  hand 
should  not  know  what  the  right  hand  does,  but  ample 


The  Widow's  Mite  139 

precedent  exists  in  church  history,  for  it  is  recorded 
that  in  the  early  Christian  Church  the  bishop,  when 
he  distributed  alms  among  the  poor,  was  to  tell  the 
recipients  the  name  of  the  giver,  so  that  they  might 
pray  for  him  by  name.  In  addition  to  securing  the 
potential  value  of  the  blessings  of  those  who  are 
benefited  by  charity,  publication  of  names  and 
amounts  also  has  a  wholesome  effect  on  givers  whose 
generosity  might  be  less  if  they  did  not  know  that 
the  public  would  know  what  they  gave;  while  he 
who  is  really  charitable  should  not  mind  having  his 
gift  published  if  it  will  help  serve  as  a  standard  for 
the  giving  of  others  less  sure  of  what  they  ought  to 
give. 

Given  the  standards  set  by  information  as  to  the 
amount  per  capita  given  in  his  city,  by  a  scale  of  giv- 
ing on  the  one-of-a-group  plan,  and  by  a  published 
list  of  names  and  amounts,  the  giver  can  probably 
figure  out  pretty  well  what  he  ought  to  contribute. 

Giving  by  Budget 

Probably  the  best  system  of  giving  is  to  make  a 
budget  based  on  the  year's  income,  and  to  allot  to  all 
philanthropic  causes  as  much  as  can  be  spared  or  as 
the  giver  feels  he  ought  to  give.  This  amount  set 
aside  for  giving  should  then  be  further  divided  into 
various  causes,  including  church,  child- welfare  work, 
health-work,  family  welfare  work,  leisure-time  activ- 
ities, and  so  on.  The  amount  to  be  given  to  each  of 
these  causes  should  depend  upon  the  number  of 
people  likely  to  share  in  the  burden.  For  example, 
one  would  give  more  to  help  support  a  church  with 


140        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

an  annual  budget  of  $10,000  a  year  and  200  mem- 
bers, than  he  would  to  support  a  child-placing  agency 
with  a  budget  of  $10,000,  but  with  a  giver's  list  of 
1,000. 

Every  giver  should  b^  a  well-rounded  giver,  rather 
than  one  who  gives  exclusively  to  some  one  cause. 

After  the  year's  budget  of  giving  has  been  thus 
planned  it  should  be  divided  up  into  payments  on 
some  convenient  time  basis  such  as  monthly,  quar- 
terly, or  semiannually. 

All  this  may  seem  like  a  great  deal  of  trouble, 
but  surely  if  one  gives  at  all,  he  wants  to  give  both 
wisely  and  well.  The  only  easier  way  to  give  intelli- 
gently is  by  giving  through  the  financial  federations 
and  community  chests  which  are  described  in  the 
previous  chapter.  While  such  federated  funds  exist 
in  forty  or  more  cities  at  the  present  time,  the  greater 
number  of  givers  in  this  country  have  not  yet 
available  the  relief  which  federation  affords.  Under 
any  circumstances,  however,  he  who  makes  an  art 
of  his  giving  will  plan  his  gift  with  a  direct  rela- 
tionship to  his  income  and  to  the  needs  of  his  com- 
munity, distributing  it  carefully,  and  with  due  regard 
to  the  service  it  will  render. 

The  Will  to  Give 

These  suggestions,  practical  as  they  are,  do  not 
settle  entirely  the  question  of  how  much  one  can 
give.  Guideposts,  they  are,  indeed,  on  the  road  to 
giving;  but,  after  all,  the  really  decisive  factor  is 
the  will  to  give  and  to  help  one's  fellows  in  the 
manifold  kinds  of  distress  which  afflict  them  in  our 


The  Widow's  Mite  141 


modern  cities.    Most  of  us,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  give 
far  less  than  we  could,  if  we  would.     We  want  so 
many  other  things  worse  than  we  want  to  give  — 
trips   to  the  seashore  and   to  the  mountains,   for 
example,   when  there  are  multitudes  at  our  very 
doors  who  cannot  even  get  into  the  open  country 
that  lies  about  our  cities  for  much-needed  recrea- 
tion;  new  clothes,  when  our  old  clothes  would  do 
another  season  and  when  there  are  many  souls  who 
live  in  veriest  tatters;  new  motor  cars,  when  our 
old  ones  would  do  and  there  are  many  who  lack  the 
necessities  of  life;  ostentatious  dinners  and  parties, 
when  many  have  not  enough  food  to  eat.     I  have 
known  respectable  citizens  who  spent  more  for  a 
buffet  supper  for  a  few  friends  than  they  give  in  the 
whole  year  to  all  of  a  city's  philanthropic  activities. 
The  trouble  of  course  is  that  they  do  not  really  care 
as  much  as  they  pretend  to  for  their  fellow-men; 
and  that  in  their  sleek  comfort  they  lack  the  imagina- 
tion to  see  the  troubles  which  afflict  those  who  live 
but  a  few  blocks  from  their  comfortable  homes. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  wealthy  woman  who  came 
in  from  a  drive  on  a  bitterly  cold  day  and  said 
to  her  chauffeur,  "  James,  prepare  a  basket  of  food 
for  the  poor  at  once.  They  must  be  suffering 
greatly."  Ten  minutes  later,  after  thoroughly  warm- 
ing herself  in  front  of  her  crackling  grate  fire,  she 
called  James  and  said,  "  I  guess  you  needn't  bother 
about  that  basket  for  the  poor.  It  isn't  as  cold  as  I 
thought  it  was." 

Whether  we  are  givers  or  social  workers,  the 
responsibility  rests  on  each  one  of  us  who  sees  the 


142        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

problem  of  human  service  and  the  need  for  it,  to 
use  every  possible  means  of  arousing  the  under- 
standing and  stirring  the  consciences  of  those  who 
do  not  see  and  who  do  not  care.  We  must  make 
the  cause  of  human  brotherhood  so  important  and 
so  popular,  that  it  will  overshadow  the  claims  of 
ostentatious  expenditure  and  competitive  display. 
We  must  make  it  a  vital  factor  in  the  lives  of  all 
our  citizens  —  or  else  many  other  things  than  charity 
will  suffer. 

No  more  fitting  summary  of  the  argument  for 
generous  giving  can  be  presented  than  the  following 
quotation  from  a  very  Good  Book : 

And  Jesus  sat  over  against  the  treasury,  and  beheld 
how  the  people  cast  money  into  the  treasury :  and  many 
that  were  rich  cast  in  much.  And  there  came  a  certain 
poor  widow,  and  she  threw  in  two  mites,  which  make  a 
farthing.  And  he  called  unto  him  his  disciples,  and 
saith  unto  them,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  That  this  poor 
widow  hath  cast  more  in,  than  all  they  which  have  cast 
into  the  treasury :  For  all  they  did  cast  in  of  their  abun- 
dance; but  she  of  her  want  did  cast  in  all  that  she  had, 
even  all  her  living. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  GIVER   WITH   THE  GIFT 

The  Holy  Supper  is  kept,  indeed, 

In  whatso  we  share  with  another's  need; 

Not  what  zee  give,  but  what  we  share, 

For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare; 

Who  gives  himself  with  his  alms  feeds  three, 

Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  me. 

Thus  sang  the  transfigured  leper  to  Sir  Launfal 
in  days  long  gone  by ;  and  thus  still  sings  the  spirit 
of  service  in  the  souls  of  those  who  really  love  their 
fellow-man.  To  give  of  one's  surplus  surely  is 
necessary,  to  give  until  it  hurts  is  certainly  credita- 
ble;  but  still  more  desirable  is  it  to  give  of  one's 
thought  and  time  and  energy  in  personal  human 
service. 

Volunteer  Service  Must  Be  Organised 

Evidently,  the  desire  to  render  such  service  is 
general.  It  is  behind  the  impulse  of  the  man  who 
gives  a  coin  to  the  beggar  on  the  street  or  of  the 
housewife  who  gives  a  handout  to  the  "  bum "  at 
her  back  door.  Intelligent  people,  who  are  familiar 
with  the  facts  given  previously  in  this  book,  realize 
the  futility  of  such  giving.  The  remedy  is  to  provide 
channels  for  constructive  giving  of  money  through 

143 


144        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

carefully  organized  charities,  and  then  to  give  oppor- 
tunity for  those  who  wish  to  render  personal  service 
through  proper  arrangement  made  by  these  same 
charities. 

The  days  of  the  individual  giver  to  his  private 
poor  have  gone  forever.  "  Lady  Bountiful "  is  a 
caricature  of  a  type  of  benevolence  which  has  passed 
beyond  recall.  As  was  made  clear  in  chapter  iii, 
the  problems  of  the  poor  are  so  numerous  and  so 
complicated  and  the  agencies  which  may  be  brought 
into  play  to  solve  these  difficulties  are  so  various, 
that  the  person  who  wants  to  give  money  can  usually 
only  be  sure  of  its  effectiveness  when  it  is  trans- 
formed into  the  activities  of  a  competent  organiza- 
tion. So  also  the  person  who  wants  to  render  per- 
sonal service  must  render  it  through  some  agency 
which  can  advise  and  direct  him  and  back  him  up 
with  a  great  variety  of  resources. 

Danger  of  Unrelated  Effort 

Individual  effort,  unrelated  to  that  of  existing 
agencies,  is  likely  to  be  not  only  ineffective  but  posi- 
tively damaging.  I  have  in  mind  a  group  of  kindly 
ladies  who  one  day  telephoned  the  Associated  Chari- 
ties in  one  of  our  cities  to  the  effect  that  they  would 
like  the  Associated  Charities  to  send  milk  to  the 
Jones  family. 

"  You  don't  need  to  make  any  investigation,"  said 
the  good  woman  who  was  telephoning.  "  We  have 
been  taking  care  of  the  Jones'  for  a  long  time  and 
all  they  need,  beyond  the  other  food  we  have  been 


The  Giver  With  the  Gift  145 

giving  them,  is  this  milk,  which  we  haven't  enough 
money  to  get  for  them." 

In  spite  of  this  assurance,  the  Associated  Chari- 
ties visitor  called,  and  found  that  Father  and  Mother 
Jones  were  dying  of  tuberculosis ;  that  their  appear- 
ance of  poverty  had  been  enhanced  by  the  fact  that 
they  had  sold  most  of  their  furniture,  knowing  they 
would  die ;  and  that  the  diet  which  the  ladies  had 
been  providing  was  entirely  unsuited  to  the  tuber- 
culous. A  doctor  and  tuberculosis  nurse  were  called, 
but  it  was  too  late.  The  father  and  mother  died. 
The  five  small  children  were  all  found  to  be  infected 
with  tuberculosis,  of  which  they  were  only  cured 
after  long  and  expensive  treatment.  They  then  had 
to  be  turned  over  to  a  child-placing  society  for 
adoption. 

Such,  too  often,  are  the  results  of  amateur  charity 
in  our  complicated  modern  cities. 

An  Old  Idea  in  New  Form 

The  idea  of  rendering  non-professional,  volunteer 
service  in  an  organized  way  is  not  new.  As  early 
as  the  twelfth  century  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  estab- 
lished rules  of  order  for  the  Tertiaries,  or  members 
of  his  Third  Order  (the  First  Order  included  the 
Franciscan  friars  and  the  Second  Order  the  nuns). 
The  Tertiaries  were  lay  men  and  women  who  lived 
as  other  people  but  were  bound  to  deeds  of  religious 
and  charitable  service  in  cooperation  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  First  and  Second  Orders.  This  Third 
Order  became  exceedingly  popular,  and  kings  and 
emperors  and  women  of  high  rank,  as  well  as  great 


146        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

numbers  of  the  more  common  people,  joined  it.  In 
the  course  of  time,  similar  groups  of  lay  workers 
were  attached  to  the  Dominicans,  the  Augustinians, 
the  Benedictines,  and  the  other  mendicant  and  mo- 
nastic orders.  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  in  the  seventeenth 
century  in  France  helped  to  bring  about  a  revival  of 
interest  in  such  volunteer  service,  particularly  in 
behalf  of  the  sick,  of  the  imprisoned,  and  of  unmar- 
ried mothers  and  their  children.  At  the  present  day 
lay  service  in  connection  with  Roman  Catholic  char- 
itable orders  seems  to  be  on  the  increase ;  while  more 
and  more  people  of  all  religious  faiths  are  endeavor- 
ing to  find  means  for  effective  personal  service  to 
those  in  need. 

Wide  Scope  for  Volunteers 

The  opportunities  for  personal  service  now  are 
greater  than  ever  they  were  before.  This  is  indicated 
by  the  tremendous  variety  of  social  service  activities 
previously  described.  He  who  wants  to  serve  can 
utilize  any  aptitude  he  has  for  the  well-being  of 
others,  from  exercising  a  talent  for  housekeeping  in 
instructing  inefficient  housewives,  to  employing  a 
knack  of  imitating  birdcalls  in  entertaining  the  chil- 
dren of  an  orphan  asylum.  He  can  give,  further, 
any  amount  of  time  he  chooses,  from  an  hour  once 
a  year  to  all  day,  every  day,  week  in  and  week  out. 

The  Volunteer  Salesman 

The  opportunity  for  service  in  connection  with  the 
financial  campaigns  of  various  charities  and  com- 
munity chests  has  been  mentioned.     Such  service 


The  Giver  With  the  Gift  147 

often  is  all  that  a  person  can  render.  It  can  be  made 
most  valuable  if  the  worker  adds  to  his  annual 
campaign  work  of  solicitation  the  function  of  talking 
about  the  charity  whenever  the  occasion  offers, 
throughout  the  year.  By  thus  serving  as  a  center 
of  publicity  he  can  lighten  his  own  task  of  money- 
raising  in  the  next  campaign  and  can  help  in  advanc- 
ing the  whole  social  service  movement. 

Useful  as  this  financial  service  is,  it  still  lacks  the 
pleasure  of  personal  contact  with  the  person  served 
and  the  advantage  which  may  be  given  to  that  person 
through  the  personality  of  the  volunteer.  Our  pur- 
pose here  is  to  discuss  some  of  the  opportunities 
which  exist  for  real  personal  service  on  a  volunteer 
basis  and  the  conditions  which  should  govern  such 
service. 

Opportunities  for  volunteer  service  exist  in  all 
the  fields  of  charity  which  we  have  described. 

Helping  the  Poor  to  Help  Themselves 

In  the  field  of  family  welfare,  one  may  serve  as 
a  member  of  a  "  case  committee,"  helping  with  his 
advice  to  solve  family  problems  as  presented  by  the 
district  workers ;  or  may  give  as  much  time  as  he 
chooses  in  visiting  the  families  themselves  in  their 
homes  and  in  helping  to  work  out  their  problems. 
Many  are  the  instances  where  a  man  or  woman  of 
strong  character  and  wide  experience  has  been  able, 
through  sympathy  and  tact,  actually  to  regenerate  a 
family ;  while  often,  even  when  such  improvement 
is  not  possible,  the  friendly  visitor  brings  a  fund  of 
good  cheer  and  encouragement  which  is  of  the  great- 


148        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

est  value  in  softening  the  rigors  of  life  for  the 
unfortunate.  One  of  the  prime  requirements  of 
such  service  among  the  poor  is  that  it  be  marked  by 
simplicity  and  friendliness,  without  any  condescen- 
sion. The  relation  of  volunteer  to  client  must  be 
one  of  mutual  trust  and  sympathy. 

"Become  as  a  Little  Child" 

In  the  field  of  child  welfare  much  valuable  service 
also  may  be  rendered.  One  may  take  into  his  home, 
temporarily,  children  who  are  being  held  for  adop- 
tion or  for  return  to  their  parents  when  transient 
difficulties  are  over.  He  may  visit  in  the  homes  of 
neglected  children  and  try  to  help  work  out  their 
difficulties.  He  may  keep  in  touch  with  children 
who  have  been  "placed  out"  for  adoption,  to  see 
that  all  is  going  well.  He  may  become  a  Big  Brother 
to  a  delinquent  boy ;  or  "  she,"  a  Big  Sister  to  a 
wayward  girl.  He  may  organize  games,  read,  or 
give  musical  performances  in  children's  institutions. 
Work  with  children  is  difficult,  because  to  get  the 
best  results  one  must  "  become  as  a  little  child ;"  but 
it  offers  great  joy  and  satisfaction. 

Caring  for  the  Sick  and  Injured 

In  the  field  of  health  great  opportunities  for  serv- 
ice exist.  While  the  good  soul  of  today  no  longer 
goes  around  nursing  the  sick  poor,  because  public 
health  nurses  and  charity  hospitals  do  this  work 
much  better,  much  work  still  remains  for  volunteer 
hands  to  do.  The  Red  Cross  during  the  World  War 
showed   the  opportunities    for  unpaid   workers   in 


The  Giver  With  the  Gift  149 

winding  bandages,  sewing  hospital  linen,  and  prepar- 
ing layettes  for  infants.  On  a  lesser  scale,  this  work 
still  remains  to  be  done  for  our  ordinary  hospitals 
and  nursing  associations.  It  offers  a  pleasant  and 
useful  type  of  activity  for  church  sewing  societies 
and  hospital  auxiliaries.  Women  trained  in  home 
nursing  or  given  short  courses  in  the  elements  of 
public-health  nursing  may  be  of  great  service  in  time 
of  epidemic,  as  during  the  influenza  epidemic  of 
1 91 8- 19.  Valuable  service  can  be  rendered  in  visit- 
ing hospitals  and  reading  to  patients  or  talking  with 
them  cheerfully ;  while  among  convalescents  and 
particularly  children,  much  may  be  done  in  the  way 
of  providing  training  in  handicrafts  and  leader- 
ship in  games.  In  connection  with  hospital  service 
departments,  one  may  visit  in  the  homes  of  the 
sick  and  help  work  out  the  problems  which  have 
caused  the  sickness  or  which  may  hamper  recovery 
when  the  patient  returns  home. 

In  the  field  of  mental  hygiene  similar  opportunities 
for  service  are  presented.  One  may  help  train  the 
inmates  of  institutions  for  the  insane  or  feeble- 
minded in  occupations,  provide  entertainment  of 
various  sorts,  and  visit  in  their  homes  to  help  work 
out  domestic  problems.  Contrary  to  general  belief, 
most  of  the  insane  are  not  dangerous,  and  the  feeble- 
minded are  merely  little  children  in  mind. 

Widest  Range  in  Leisure-Time  Activity 

In  the  field  of  leisure-time  activities  perhaps  the 
greatest  variety  of  volunteer  service  may  be  ren- 
dered.    One  may  become  a  Boy  Scout  master  or  a 


I5°        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

Girl  Scout  leader ;  teach  citizenship,  English,  arith- 
metic, or  other  subjects  to  men  and  women  of  for- 
eign birth ;  coach  backward  girls  and  boys  in  their 
studies ;  supervise  a  gameroom ;  help  direct  activi- 
ties on  a  playground ;  conduct  classes  in  manual 
training,  music,  sewing,  cooking,  clay  modeling, 
painting,  printing,  or  any  one  of  a  multitude  of  other 
subjects;  conduct  hikes;  provide  musical  or  other 
entertainment  at  club  or  neighborhood  parties ;  work 
with  "  difficult "  boys  or  girls  and  through  personal 
advice  and  help  keep  them  from  getting  into  trouble. 
The  opportunities  in  this  field  are  as  infinite  as  the 
likes  and  desires  of  human  nature  itself. 

Such  in  brief  are  the  opportunities  for  personal 
service  which  present  themselves  to  the  person  who 
wishes  to  give  himself  along  with  his  gift. 

The  Value  of  Volunteer  Service 

The  satisfactions  of  such  service  are  manifold 
and  the  rewards  many,  both  to  the  person  who  is 
served  and  to  the  person  who  renders  the  service. 
The  volunteer  will  find  his  own  sympathies  broad- 
ened, his  understanding  deepened,  and  his  outlook  on 
life  widened.  Valuable,  too,  are  the  results  to  the 
organization  which  secures  volunteer  workers.  It  may 
do  its  usual  work  with  fewer  paid  workers,  or  more 
work  with  the  same  staff  of  workers  and  may  count 
on  the  volunteer  workers  to  act  as  centers  for  in- 
forming the  public  on  the  work  of  the  organization. 
The  infusion  of  the  outside  point  of  view  helps  pre- 
vent the  organization's  point  of  view  from  becoming 


The  Giver  With  the  Gift  151 

too  highly  institutionalized  —  that  is,  if  the  volun- 
teers are  of  right  quality  and  may  be  depended  on. 

The  Rules  of  Volunteer  Service 

This  last  proviso  suggests  that  if  volunteer  service 
is  to  be  of  any  value,  or,  indeed,  of  not  more  harm 
than  good,  certain  regulations  and  requirements  must 
be  set  for  it  except  for  the  most  casual  kind  of 
impersonal  entertainment.  The  volunteer  should 
first  of  all  have  an  understanding  of  the  general 
field  in  which  he  is  attempting  to  serve,  as,  say,  the 
family  welfare  field ;  and  some  acquaintance,  also, 
with  the  principles  of  the  specific  task  he  is  under- 
taking, as,  say,  the  instruction  of  housewives  in 
family  budgets.  Second,  the  volunteer  should  be 
willing  to  keep  in  touch  with  current  developments 
in  the  field  in  which  he  is  serving,  through  reading 
such  a  social  service  magazine  as  the  Survey,  read- 
ing the  best  books  which  are  published,  and  attending 
conferences  and  lectures  on  social  subjects.  Fur- 
ther, the  volunteer  must  be  regular  in  his  service 
and  be  dependable.  Much  volunteer  work  in  recrea- 
tion centers  is  more  bother  than  it  is  worth  because 
half  the  time  the  person  who  has  promised  to  con- 
duct, say,  a  manual  training  class,  fails  to  appear  at 
the  scheduled  time,  and  a  paid  worker  has  to  be  on 
the  job  to  instruct  the  boys  or  else  the  organization 
suffers  a  severe  loss  of  confidence  on  the  part  of 
those  it  is  trying  to  serve.  Moreover,  it  is  generally 
better  for  the  volunteer  to  do  one  job  well  than  to 
give  partial  attention  to  several  tasks;  better,  for 
example,  to  devote  one's  self  to  one  needy  family 


152         Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

than  to  give  the  same  amount  of  time  to  half  a  dozen. 
Finally,  volunteer  service  must  be  supervised.  The 
volunteer  must  be  responsible  to  a  trained  worker 
with  whom  he  advises  concerning  the  problems  he 
meets  and  the  solution  he  applies.  In  his  service 
the  volunteer  must  be  subject  to  all  the  principles 
which  have  been  enumerated  as  essential  to  an  effi- 
cient organization.  They  are  the  "  rules  of  the 
game  "  which  all  workers,  whether  paid  or  unpaid, 
must  play  by. 

A  Clearing-House  for  Volunteers 

One  of  the  chief  problems  of  the  person  who  wants 
to  render  volunteer  service  is  to  find  opportunity  for 
his  service.  The  method  of  making  application  at 
one  agency  after  another  for  permission  to  help  is 
wearisome  and  unsatisfactory,  and  likely  to  tire  out 
the  volunteer  before  he  finds  a  niche  in  which  he 
can  be  most  effective.  The  only  sensible  method  is 
for  the  charities  of  a  city  to  unite  as  a  council  of 
social  agencies,  as  described  in  the  chapter  on  "  Ef- 
fective Gifts  "  and  then  to  let  this  council  maintain 
a  clearing-house  for  volunteer  workers.  This  cen- 
tral office  can  direct  volunteers  to  the  charities  which 
can  best  use  their  abilities  and  most  need  them.  It 
can  advertise  the  opportunities  for  volunteer  service, 
so  as  to  reach  many  people  who  had  not  previously 
thought  of  such  service.  It  can  conduct  training 
courses  for  volunteers,  organize  series  of  lectures, 
issue  courses  of  reading,  and  standardize  the  require- 
ments for  volunteer  service  for  all  the  agencies  of 
each  type.     Teamwork  in  handling  gifts  of  service 


The  Giver  With  the  Gift  153 

is  as  valuable  as  teamwork   in   handling  gifts  of 
money. 

Promotion  for  Volunteers 

The  volunteer  need  not  stop  at  service  of  the  kinds 
described.  Many  volunteers  have  developed  such 
ability  and  such  interest  in  their  work  that  they  have 
become  full-time,  professional  social  workers.  Many 
others  have  developed  such  an  interest  and  showed 
it  so  effectively,  that  they  have  been  elected  as  mem- 
bers of  the  boards  of  directors  of  the  organizations 
in  which  they  have  served,  and  thus  helped  to  put 
into  action  constructive  policies,  the  reasons  for 
which  they  learned  as  actual  workers.  Certainly, 
also,  volunteer  service  in  giving  time  is  the  best 
possible  basis  for  an  understanding  to  guide  the 
giving  of  money. 

Volunteer  service  thus  is  seen  to  be  of  the  utmost 
importance  in  contributing  to  the  well-being  of  those 
in  need,  in  aiding  charitable  organizations  to  do  their 
work  well  and  adequately,  and  in  satisfaction  to  the 
volunteer,  himself.  It  requires  intelligence,  patience, 
persistence,  and  the  cooperative  spirit,  and  can  utilize 
all  the  talents,  all  the  training,  all  the  experience  and 
all  the  time  the  volunteer  is  willing  to  devote  to  it. 
When  properly  rendered,  it  is  the  highest  form  of 
giving,  for  with  it  the  giver  gives  himself. 


CHAPTER  XI 

WHITHER  ? 

AND  thus,  at  last,  we  have  come  to  the  end  of 
this  little  guide  book  which  strives  to  describe 
for  wayfarers  through  the  land  of  life  one  of  its 
pleasantest  routes. 

"  What,"  you  may  ask,  "  is  the  use  of  all  these 
minute  directions  as  to  the  roads  to  follow,  and  the 
pleasant  sights  to  see  and  the  experiences  to  be 
enjoyed,  if  the  route  is  to  be  put  out  of  business? 
We  hear  so  much  talk  these  days  that  poverty  is  to 
be  abolished,  that  charity  is  to  disappear,  that  social- 
ism and  syndicalism  and  single-tax-ism  and  birth- 
control-ism  and  social-legislation-ism  and  general 
prosperity-ism  will  banish  all  need  for  philanthropy 
and  social  service.  Perhaps  your  guideposts  and 
landmarks,  so  carefully  indicated,  will  soon  stand 
stark  and  useless  on  a  road  which  is  overgrown  with 
lush  grass  that  knows  no  travelers'  foot." 

Charity  to  Remain 

Alas,  that  this  prophecy  is  not  likely  to  come  true ! 
Would  that  poverty,  disease,  ignorance,  shiftless- 
ness,  untimely  death,  inequality  of  opportunity  and 
ability,  vice,  and  crime  might  disappear  from  the 
face  of  the  earth ;  and  that  all  the  millions  of  men 
who  swarm  thereupon  might  become  equally  aoble, 

i54 


W hither  f  155 


happy,  independent,  self-supporting,  and  robust. 
Such  an  evolution  may  take  place  in  some  dim  and 
distant  millenium ;  but  still,  for  many  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  years  to  come,  there  will  be  opportu- 
nity, of  some  sort  or  another,  for  those  of  us  who 
feel  sympathy  and  pity  and  compassion;  who  are 
moved  by  the  calls  of  duty,  justice,  religious  obliga- 
tion, and  a  broad  humanity,  to  show,  through  sharing 
our  worldly  goods  and  our  energies,  that  we  do  love 
our  neighbors  as  ourselves. 

Much  Poverty  Will  Be  Eliminated 

The  needs,  indeed,  which  charity  is  called  on  to 
meet  will  change.  There  is  no  doubt  that  some  of  the 
reforms  which  are  so  valiantly  agitated  at  the  present 
time  will  help  greatly  to  modify  our  present  prob- 
lems of  poverty,  to  lessen  the  acuteness  of  distress 
and  to  distribute  more  widely  the  wealth  of  the 
community  and  of  the  nation.  The  preventable  haz- 
ards of  life,  such  as  sickness,  accident,  untimely 
death,  and  unemployment,  may  be  very  greatly  elimi- 
nated. Old  age  will  doubtless  be  robbed  of  much 
of  its  terrors  by  pensions ;  and  accident  and  sickness 
encountered  in  the  course  of  work  will  be  compen- 
sated by  disability  pensions  and  health  insurances. 
Compulsory  education  with  increasingly  high  age 
requirements,  coupled  with  continuation  education 
after  a  young  person  goes  to  work,  given  force  by 
vocational  training  for  specialized  pursuits  and  given 
point  by  mental  tests  which  will  adjudge  the  fitness 
of  each  child  for  a  particular  type  of  work,  will 
produce  men  and  women  more  able  to  earn  their 


156        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

own  living.  A  universal  system  of  labor  exchanges 
will  greatly  reduce  unemployment.  Segregation  of 
all  feeble-minded  as  the  result  of  tests  early  in  life 
will  remove  most  of  our  criminal,  vicious,  and  shift- 
less classes.  The  housing  and  city-planning  move- 
ment will  endeavor  to  see  to  it  that  every  citizen 
lives  in  an  attractive  and  wholesome  home.  The 
recreation  movement  will  offer  everyone  a  chance  for 
joyous  play  and  for  self-expression  in  a  multitude 
of  ways.  Industrial  processes  will  be  better  adapted 
to  the  physical  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  workers, 
and  we  shall  have  fewer  men  and  women  "  worked 
out"  in  the  prime  of  life.  Despite  all  these  rosy 
prophecies,  which  will  surely  be  realized  in  greater 
or  less  degree,  there  still  will  be  people  in  various 
sorts  of  need.  No  system  works  perfectly.  The 
civilization  of  the  future  will  break  down  in  this 
place  and  that  and  human  nature  will  here  and  there 
revert  to  old  types.  Charity  will  still  have  work 
to  do. 

The  methods,  too,  of  charity  will  surely  change, 
as  its  problems  change. 

City  Will  Assume  Many  Activities 

As  community  after  community  becomes  prac- 
tically a  community  of  givers,  through  the  operation 
of  unified  campaigns  which  secure  subscriptions  from 
almost  every  able-bodied  person,  and  as  the  whole 
community  is  more  and  more  completely  "  sold  "  on 
the  question  of  social  service,  the  question  will  nat- 
urally arise,  "Why  not  substitute  this  voluntary 
giving,  which  is  practically  universal,  for  taxation, 


IV  hither  f  i$7 


which  is  universal  ?  "  In  consequence,  many  activi- 
ties, now  privately  financed,  will  be  taken  over  by 
the  community.  Public-health  activities,  including 
home  nursing  and  hospital  treatment  probably  will 
be  among  the  first  to  be  taken  over  by  the  state.  On 
them  depends  the  community's  well-being;  and  the 
community  cannot  afford  to  let  any  special  group  in 
its  number,  no  matter  how  wise,  finance  and  direct  so 
vital  a  function.  Family  welfare  work  is  already 
being  done  in  some  cities  as  a  function  of  govern- 
ment, notably  in  Detroit ;  and  as  it  becomes  possible 
to  trust  municipal  officers  to  administer  so  delicate  a 
function  without  partisanship  and  with  trained  and 
competent  workers  given  assurance  of  employment 
so  long  as  they  render  satisfactory  service,  more  and 
more  communities  will  be  willing  to  see  their  Associ- 
ated Charities  transformed  into  city  social  service 
bureaus.  It  probably  will  not  be  long  before  the  state 
assumes  complete  responsibility  for  dependent  and 
neglected  children,  with  special  attention  given  to 
home-finding  and  child-placing  by  competent  work- 
ers, just  as  it  has  assumed  complete  responsibility  for 
education,  which  until  the  last  century  or  so  was  en- 
tirely private  or  charitable.  Rapidly,  too,  the  leisure- 
time  field  will  be  occupied  by  such  community  activi- 
ties as  school  social  centers  and  community  music 
and  drama,  while  the  playground  and  park  systems 
will  be  expanded  to  meet  the  needs  of  all  the  people. 
In  all  these  activities,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  opportu- 
nity will  be  left  for  volunteers  who  want  to  give  of 
their  time  and  ability,  to  serve  their  fellow-citizens, 
much  as  in  Elberfeld,  Germany,  citizens  in  each  dis- 


158         Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

trict  of  the  city  were  made  responsible  for  a  certain 
amount  of  family  welfare  work  under  the  supervi- 
sion of  public  officers. 

Private  Philanthropy  Will  Still  Remain 

While  a  large  part  of  what  we  now  consider  phil- 
anthropic activities  will  be  taken  over  by  the 
public,  many  others  will  remain  or  be  created  under 
private  finance  and  control.  Public  opinion  will  in 
actuality  move  but  slowly  to  assume  all  the  functions 
just  described  ;  and  in  many  cities  for  a  long  time  the 
mass  of  the  citizens  will  be  unwilling  to  carry  the 
burden  of  taxation  for  causes  now  supported  by 
contribution.  Further,  many  special  groups  will 
retain  their  own  charities.  The  Jews  probably  will 
long  continue  caring  for  their  own  poor,  the  ortho- 
dox of  whom  require  special  food  and  cooking  which 
probably  would  not  be  supplied  by  public  authori- 
ties. The  Roman  Catholics  and  some  Protestant 
denominations  will  for  many  years  continue  their 
orphanages  where  dependent  children  may  be 
brought  up  carefully  in  the  faith  of  their  fathers. 
Fraternal  orders  will  keep  up  institutions  for  their 
aged  and  infirm  members  and  for  widows  and 
orphans  of  members.  Recreational  centers  will  be 
maintained  by  such  activities  as  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  which  wish  to  subject  their 
users  to  a  special  inspiration  or  religious  influence. 
Again,  a  public  system  of  social  service,  established 
by  law,  is  bound  to  have  many  inequalities  and  to 
suffer  from  the  fact  that  social  conditions  change 
while  the  law  remains  unaltered  through  inertia  of 


Whither?  159 


public  opinion.  Private  charity  must  "  take  up  the 
slack."  Thus,  in  the  beginning  of  the  development 
of  the  mothers'  pension  system,  it  was  found  that 
many  unusual  cases  existed  which  the  law  did  not 
cover,  as,  for  example,  mothers  with  sickly  children 
who  required  special  food  and  care  for  which  the 
allotment  provided  by  law  was  inadequate;  while, 
later  on,  during  and  after  the  World  War,  the  in- 
crease in  the  cost  of  living  made  all  allowances 
inadequate  and  forced  private  charities  to  supple- 
ment practically  every  pensioned  family.  Finally, 
private  philanthropy  will  always  go  a-pioneering, 
seeking  to  render  service  in  the  places  not  yet  ac- 
cepted as  properly  to  be  cared  for  by  public  agencies, 
and  to  experiment  in  untried  activities,  as,  recently, 
private  philanthropy  has  done  in  promoting  mental 
tests  for  the  feeble-minded  and  in  developing  treat- 
ment and  training  for  the  crippled. 

Principles  of  Social  Service  Will  Endure 

If  it  is  true  that  charity  will  still  be  needed  in  this 
world  for  many  and  many  a  day  —  and  it  seems  as 
true  as  anything  well  may  be  in  this  changing  world 
—  the  principles  which  have  been  enunciated  in  the 
earlier  chapters  of  this  little  book  will  stand.  Still 
will  giving  be  most  truly  charitable  when  based  on 
the  desire  to  serve  another.  Still  will  the  best 
method  of  social  service  be  that  which  takes  into 
account  the  special  problem  of  each  individual  and 
cuts  the  service  to  fit  his  needs.  Still  will  it  be 
wise  and  humane  to  remove  so  far  as  possible 
the  causes  of  human  distress.     Still  will  remain, 


160        Sympathy  and  System  in  Giving 

in  one  form  or  another,  the  problems  of  family 
welfare,  of  child  welfare,  of  physical  and  mental 
health,  and  of  the  leisure  time  of  the  people,  to  be 
solved  in  varying  ways.  Still  will  the  principles  of 
business  organization  be  required  to  render  effective 
aid  in  these  fields  of  service.  Still  will  heart  speak 
to  heart,  and  human  being  help  human  being.  Still 
will  abide  those  graces  of  which  the  greatest  is 
charity. 

Charity  and  Human  Brotherhood 

Still,  also  will  persist  the  factor  of  charity,  or 
social  service,  as  a  great  binder  of  mankind.  As  more 
and  more  people  become  liberal  in  thought  through 
the  wide  dissemination  of  education,  as  we  pass 
further  and  further  from  a  state  of  class  distinc- 
tion and  economic  bondage,  and  all  citizens  see  that 
they  are  responsible  for  the  well-being  of  our  democ- 
racy, giving  will  become  more  and  more  general, 
until  even  those  who  receive  charity  will  think  it 
their  pleasure  and  duty  to  give  when  they  can,  while 
all  of  us  will  be  benefited  by  a  charity  which  serves 
the  whole  community.  In  some  democratic  plan  of 
cooperation  all  charities  will  be  affiliated ;  all  racial 
groups  ;  all  neighborhood  groups  ;  all  citizens.  It  may 
be  that  in  charity,  whose  principles  are  common  to  all 
religions,  we  may  find  a  basis  for  cooperation  which 
will  bring  together  Catholic,  Jew,  and  Protestant, 
overlooking  doctrinal  difference,  in  a  common  pro- 
gram of  human  service.  It  may  be  that  charity,  as 
translated  into  service  to  the  life  of  the  community, 
will  bring  together  capital  and  labor,  in  agreement 


Whither?  161 


first  on  the  principles  of  social  well-being  and  later 
on  the  principles  of  economic  cooperation.  Through 
that  charity  which  is  the  living  spirit  of  all  human 
service,  the  bonds  of  human  brotherhood  will  be  knit 
closer  and  closer,  and  men  will  come  nearer  and 
nearer  to  realizing  the  truth  of  that  inspired  phrase 
now  nearly  two  thousand  years  old,  "  We  are  mem- 
bers, one  of  another." 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


DEC     8  1951, 

HB"    REC° 

Grad.  R.  &• 


W. 


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Form  L-9-10m-5,'28 


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3  1158  00857  1381 


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AA    000  390  828    2 


If 

III  111 


m 


mitt 


IPlr. 


